A court in France releases Telegram owner Pavel Durov on bail of 5 million euros. He has already left the courthouse in a car escorted by police. Durov’s detention stirred up millions of users, a wave of support for the businessman rose in Russia, and Europe and Ukraine once again started talking aloud about the messenger being a source of fakes, disinformation, and Russian narratives.
A court on Wednesday launched a formal investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov in an organized crime case, but he may avoid pre-trial detention if he posts bail of €5 million.
Durov has to report to the police twice a week and is banned from leaving the territory of France, Reuters reports.
As the agency explains, according to French law, the investigation does not mean that Durov is considered guilty or that he will stand trial. This decision only shows that the judges see enough grounds in the case to continue the investigation. It could last for years before it is transferred to the court for consideration on the merits, or it could be closed, Reuters explains.
Pavel Durov was detained at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on Saturday, August 24, where he arrived by private jet from Azerbaijan.
The French passport is one of the four that Durov has, according to media reports, in addition to his Russian citizenship. He left Russia back in 2014, but traveled there very often.
He founded the VKontakte network (he had to sell it), which is still the largest network in Russia and became the Russian answer to the American Facebook. Due to the threat to Ukraine’s national security, VKontakte was banned in Ukraine under President Petro Poroshenko.
According to the businessman himself, the number of users of Telegram, launched by Durov in 2013, is expected to exceed one billion worldwide by 2025. Forbes currently estimates his net worth at $15.5 billion, and Durov is ranked 122nd on the list of the world’s richest people.
On the weekend after the arrest, French law enforcement agencies did not immediately release information about the nature of the case and claims directly against the Telegram founder. Without waiting for official statements, the messenger’s representatives called attempts to blame the platform or its owner for the “abuse” of users “absurd.”
The importance that France attaches to Durov’s detention became clear when French President Emmanuel Macron made a statement on the matter, also before the national prosecutor’s office did.
He wrote in X that Durov’s arrest was “not a political decision” but part of a judicial proceeding, and that France remained committed to freedom of speech and entrepreneurship.
Only on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office published an official statement. It said that the case against the unnamed individuals was opened on July 8 after a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office’s cybercrime unit.
The release listed 12 corpus delicti investigated by French investigators, including
Durov’s role was described as “complicity,” “aiding and abetting,” and “conspiracy,” but his procedural status – witness, suspect, etc. – was not specified.
In the same release, the prosecutor’s office said that Durov’s arrest had been extended for two days, until the evening of August 28, or the maximum 96 hours allowed.
On Wednesday, a few hours before the deadline, Politico wrote, citing a French document it had seen, that the case had been opened several months earlier than expected-in March, not June.
According to Politico, the investigation is related to Durov’s refusal to cooperate with French law enforcement, who requested data from the messenger about a user involved in the distribution of child pornography.
As part of this case, a search and arrest warrant was issued not only for Pavel Durov, but also for his older brother Nikolai, the co-founder of Telegram, Politico reports. Telegram did not comment on the report.
Telegram’s reputation largely rests on its founder’s refusal to cooperate with the security services and to hand over users’ personal data and encryption keys. This is done for privacy reasons.
Durov also explained this as a technical impossibility: according to him, the encryption system is designed in such a way that only the messenger users themselves have the keys.
According to Durov, pressure from security forces was one of the reasons why he was forced to sell his previous project, the VKontakte social network.
And the idea of creating a secure messenger – what later became Telegram – came to him during searches, he said in a recent interview with conservative American TV host Tucker Carlson.
Telegram’s privacy policy mentions one ground for disclosing user data (clause 8.3): “In the event of a court request regarding a terrorist suspect, we may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant services… but so far there have been no such cases.”
The flip side of such anonymity and security is the possibility of using the messenger by malicious actors, abusing freedom of expression to the detriment of security.
This is how law enforcement and authorities in different countries often explain the need to tighten control over the platform, but there are also supporters of this view among ordinary netizens.
This opposition – the value of freedom versus the value of security – is the basis for the discussion that has unfolded on social media between those who consider the claims of French law enforcement against Durov to be repression and those who believe their actions are justified.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/articles/c703ll143d7o.amp
On August 28, the XVII Paralympic Summer Games 2024 will start. These Games will be the first time Paris will host the Paralympic Games and the second time France will host the Paralympic Games (the cities of Tignes and Albertville co-hosted the 1992 Winter Paralympic Games).
In total, 140 athletes from Ukraine will compete in 17 out of 22 sports, which is a record. Ukraine will be most represented in swimming (37 athletes) and athletics (28).
The Paralympics 2024 will be broadcast live on Suspilne.Sport. The opening ceremony will start at 20:30.
Later, live broadcasts of the competition will be available on the Suspilne.Sport website, as well as on Suspilne’s regional TV channels, which are available on cable operators’ networks, Megogo media service, Diia app and T2 digital broadcast. Also, the 2024 Paralympics will be shown on Pervyi TV channel.
As reported by OBOZ.UA, 143 athletes in 15 sports represented Ukraine at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Most of our compatriots performed in swimming (40) and athletics (32). Our team finished in sixth place with 98 medals (24 gold, 47 silver and 27 bronze).
At the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Ukraine was in the top 3 in the medal standings, behind only China and Great Britain.
Telegram messenger founder Pavel Durov was released from custody on Wednesday, August 28, after nearly four days of detention, Bloomberg reports.
“According to a Justice Ministry spokesperson, Durov will now appear before an investigating judge at the Paris court in the north of the capital. The judge is expected to subject the 39-year-old to additional questioning before deciding whether to press charges against him or to designate him as a material witness in the investigation and release him,” the report said.
If charges are filed, the court will have to decide whether to impose any restrictions on his movement or whether Durov should be granted bail. The entire process is expected to take place behind closed doors.
French authorities are investigating a wide range of charges. They include refusing to help the authorities conduct lawful wiretaps of suspects, allowing the sale of child sexual abuse materials, and facilitating drug trafficking.
It is noted that although the filing of charges is a key point in French investigations, criminal proceedings – if granted – can take several months or even years. As the investigation progresses, Durov will have the opportunity to challenge any charges through his legal team.
The National Bank of Ukraine on August 23 revoked licenses and excluded from the State Register of Financial Institutions ODO IC Varto (Kiev) and PJSC ASK Dnister (Lviv), according to the regulator’s website.
The regulator granted permission to exit the market by fulfilling the insurance portfolio to the mentioned companies on August 6 and July 17, having agreed on the exit plan.
According to the statements, for 2023, the insurance portfolio of PJSC ASK Dnister was formed from payments on insurance of land transport (except railway) – 91.6%, property insurance against fire and other risks – 6%, other types – 2.4%.
The volume of insurance premiums of the company in the mentioned period has amounted to UAH 10,010 mln, formed insurance reserves – UAH 4,987 mln, at the same time the company has paid UAH 6,109 mln of indemnities. Its share on insurance premiums in the market makes 0,01%.
The insurance portfolio of ALC IC Varto was formed at the expense of payments under health insurance contracts – 100%.
The volume of insurance premiums of the company in the specified period has amounted to UAH 29,594 mln, formed insurance reserves – UAH 3,007 mln. The volume of paid indemnities has been fixed at the level of UAH 15,422 mln. The company occupied 0,07% of the insurance services market.
Nova Poshta LLC plans to increase its investments in the Moldovan market to $880 thousand in 2024, which is 4.5 times more than the volume of such investments in 2023, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
“The bulk of the investments will be directed to expanding our network, repairing branches, automating workplaces, updating IT infrastructure, and increasing the fleet of vehicles for delivery by couriers,” said Sergey Shapran, CEO of Nova Poshta in Moldova.
In addition, in 2025, Nova Poshta plans to create a new sorting hub in Moldova, where business customers will be able to use fulfillment services.
According to the company, over the 10 years of its operation in this country, Nova Poshta has become one of the three fastest deliveries in Moldova, and has built a network of 21 branches, 261 post offices and three sorting terminals.
In addition, it was the first company in the Moldovan market to launch parcel delivery points on the basis of existing businesses: shops, gas stations, etc. Currently, there are 53 delivery points in Moldova, and the company plans to further expand its network.
According to the report, in the first half of 2024, Nova Poshta in Moldova delivered 1.1 million parcels, almost as many as in the whole of 2023 (1.2 million), and paid 12.5 million lei in taxes to the local state budget of the country.
“In Moldova, Nova Poshta delivers parcels from marketplaces in China, America, Ukraine, as well as to/from Romania.
The company is also working on integrating Moldova into the Nova Post Europe system, which will allow customers to send and receive parcels from 13 European countries.
In the first half of 2024, the company delivered 771 thousand international parcels, compared to 590 thousand for the whole of 2023.
As reported, in the first half of 2024, Nova Poshta increased its consolidated net income by 22.6% to UAH 24.45 billion, while the company’s consolidated net profit decreased by 36.9% to UAH 1.48 billion.
The use of Ukrainian-made sandwich panels increased by 15% in the first half of 2024, while sales of imported products decreased by 12%, Andriy Ozeychuk, director of the engineering and construction company Rauta, told Interfax-Ukraine.
“In the first half of 2024, the volume of the Ukrainian sandwich panel market in absolute terms amounted to just over 1 million square meters, which is similar to the figures for 2023. At the same time, the use of Ukrainian-made panels increased by 15%, while sales of imported products decreased by 12%,” he said.
Ozeychuk also emphasized the change in the structure of sandwich panels: their share of mineral wool is decreasing, while the demand for panels with PIR (polyurethane foam – a fire-resistant insulating material based on polyurethane) filler is growing, which has the highest thermal insulation properties and a lower price.
“From 2021 to 2024, the price in euros of PIR-filled sandwich panels decreased by 18%, while mineral wool-filled panels increased in price by 37%,” he said.
At the same time, the Rauta director stated that today the construction of new facilities is actively developing only in western Ukraine, while in other regions it is limited to spot projects and the reconstruction of destroyed buildings.
According to him, the main problem of the construction market, in particular the sandwich panel segment, is a large market decline of 60-70% compared to 2021. Most investors take a wait-and-see attitude and do not risk investing in new projects.
At the same time, despite the war risks, the owners of most of the destroyed commercial and industrial facilities have invested in their restoration to quickly restart their businesses, allowing them to continue to operate efficiently.
In particular, Rauta has implemented a number of large-scale restoration projects, including the Retroville shopping mall in Kyiv, the production shop of the Chernihiv Automobile Plant, and the Novus supermarket in Bucha (Kyiv region).
According to Ozeychuk, the industry’s acute problems are a shortage of personnel, especially among skilled laborers, as well as blackouts.
“For some positions, we have to look for specialists for several months, and sometimes train employees ourselves. That’s why salaries and, accordingly, the cost of construction are rising. Blackouts, which last from two to six hours a day, reduce the productivity of builders, increase the time and cost of construction by 20-40%,” he said.
According to his observations, the program for the restoration and protection of critical infrastructure facilities has the greatest impact among government programs.
“In general, by the end of 2024, we expect the sandwich panel market to remain at the level of 2023 with a possible growth of up to 10%,” Ozeychuk summarized.
Founded in 2014, Rauta Group LLC (Rauta) is an engineering and construction company engaged in the design, supply and installation of sandwich panels, ventilated facades and prefabricated buildings. It is the exclusive importer of commercial products from the Finnish concern Ruukki to Ukraine, as well as the developer of a number of innovations that reduce the cost and time of construction.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
