"Durov Deliberately Surrendered to France to Avoid Trial in the US": Ksenia Sobchak's Version

Recently, the minds of Russians and not only Russians have been excited by various versions of the future fate of Pavel Durov. Will he give the "keys to Telegram" to the French special services or not? Will he flee? Pay off? Do time? Will they extradite him? What will he answer to the question about two chairs?

Ksenia Anatolyevna Sobchak, who currently heads one of the best Telegram media in Russia (no joke) has her own version of Pavel's motives.

Could Durov have surrendered himself in Paris?

Pavel Durov, the creator of Telegram, has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to anticipate the moves of his opponents. His recent arrest by the French authorities does not look like an accident, but like a carefully thought-out strategic move, Ksenia Sobchak believes.

According to her, some sources close to Durov claim that he deliberately chose Paris to avoid harsher prosecution in the United States.

The American authorities have long been showing increased interest in Durov, trying to hold him accountable for various violations. The closure of the TON blockchain platform, interference with the release of the Gram token, and refusal to cooperate with the intelligence services only exacerbated the conflict. Fearing extradition to the United States, Durov could have decided that surrendering to the French authorities would be a safer option. They say he has already served time for this in his "homeland". And it seems that you shouldn't be tried twice for the same thing.

Extradition from the EU to the US

From a legal point of view, France, as a rule, does not extradite its citizens to other countries. This gives Durov the opportunity to defend his interests in the European court and avoid extradition to the US.

In addition, such a move allows him to attract public attention to his situation and present himself as a victim of political persecution.

On the other hand, according to candidate of legal sciences and lawyer Anna Kotlova, "hypothetically, if there is an agreement on the extradition of Durov, as a citizen of a European country, he can be extradited from other EU countries to the United States if he is accused of a crime there."

Precedents

On the other hand, The Extradition Treaty between the United States and France was signed in Paris on April 23, 1996. And it is still in effect.

Other EU countries also have similar agreements. And they periodically extradite Russian citizens to the US.

Here is a short list.

Artem Uss (Italy - USA), 2023

On October 17, 2022, Artem Uss, the son of Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor Alexander Uss, was detained at Malpensa Airport in Milan at the request of the United States. On October 19, a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, presented a 12-count indictment charging five Russian citizens, including Artem Uss, with involvement in an international procurement, smuggling and money laundering network.

On March 21, 2023, it became known that the Milan Court of Appeal in Italy decided to extradite Artem Uss to the US authorities. However, thanks to the Serbian mafia in Italy, Uss managed to escape back to the Russian Federation.

Denis Kloster (Bulgaria - USA), 2022

On September 19, 2022, a Bulgarian court approved the extradition of Denis Kloster to the United States. He was detained in early June after arriving in the ski resort of Bansko, located in the Blagoevgrad region in southwestern Bulgaria, on May 30. The arrest occurred at the request of the US Department of Justice, and the District Court in Blagoevgrad ruled to hold Kloster in custody until his extradition to American authorities. According to media reports, Kloster himself expressed a desire to be in the US as soon as possible to prove his innocence. At the same time, the newspaper "24 Hours" reported that in the documents of the American side he appears under the surname Emelyantsev. It is assumed that the native of Omsk changed his surname to Kloster (his mother's maiden name) only in 2019, and also received German citizenship.

The US Department of Justice announced the liquidation of the RSOCKS botnet, allegedly operated by Russian hackers and which hacked millions of computers around the world. Although the names of the alleged hackers were not disclosed, media outlets believe that Klooster could have been one of the creators of this botnet.

Denis Dubnikov (Netherlands - USA), 2022

On August 18, 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that the Netherlands extradited Russian citizen Denis Dubnikov to the United States, who was detained and arrested on November 2, 2021, at Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) at the request of the US authorities. According to lawyer Arkady Bukh, Dubnikov was detained by FBI agents in Mexico, after which he was taken to the Netherlands.

According to the US Department of Justice, Dubnikov is accused of money laundering for the benefit of cybercriminal groups. On February 6, 2023, it was reported that Dubnikov pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Vladimir Dunaev (South Korea - USA), 2021

On October 15, 2021, South Korea extradited Vladimir Dunaev to the United States, who was detained on May 25 on charges of cyber fraud. In addition to him, the case also involves Latvian citizen Anna Witte, who was previously arrested in Miami, as well as four Russians and one Ukrainian, who remain at large. The charges against them are related to the creation and distribution of malware called Trickbot, which infected millions of computers around the world.

According to the indictment, the criminal group operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Suriname. It is known that four of the defendants were living in Russia at the time the indictment was drawn up in August 2020. If Vladimir Dunayev is found guilty, he could face up to 60 years in prison.

Vladislav Klyushin (Switzerland - USA), 2021

On December 18, 2021, Russian citizen Vladislav Klyushin was extradited from Switzerland to the United States. He was arrested on March 21 in Switzerland. In the United States, Klyushin is accused of insider trading in securities based on stolen and non-public information, in which, according to American authorities, several of his accomplices participated. The American Embassy in Bern reported that we are talking about tens of millions of dollars earned on insider trading. Klyushin is the founder of the company "M13", which deals with information technologies in the field of media monitoring.

On February 14, 2023, a jury in Boston found Klyushin guilty of cybercrimes. However, the Russian's lawyers pointed out errors in the testimony of FBI agent B.J. Kang.

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