Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram, on Friday criticized Russia’s internet censorship and domestic tech policies, arguing they unwittingly play directly into U.S. cyber espionage.
“Censorship and internet blocks have only pushed Russia further away from ‘digital sovereignty’,” Durov wrote, referring to the country’s years-long aim to isolate its web infrastructure and reduce reliance on foreign technology amid souring relations with the West.
Days after Apple removed Russia’s state-backed messaging app Max from its App Store, Durov asserted that any domestic or foreign app running on iOS and Android was “exposed to targeted U.S. surveillance and censorship through backdoors and app stores.”
“It’s just changing the packaging without changing the core reality. Nothing but Potemkin villages with a distinct flavor of corruption,” Durov wrote in a post on his Telegram channel.
Earlier this week, the FSB security service accused major web hosting services of helping Western intelligence agencies spy on high-ranking Russian officials through their iPhones.
