Sunday Thoughts

When I recorded the show, I had not dug into the official bullshit about the arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian guy who founded Telegram. I still lean toward this being connected to the Ukraine war, but maybe the free speech people are right, and it is about censorship. Politically, it is better if people see it as an attack on liberal values, like free speech. That is an easy issue to rally around, and it appeals to a much larger segment of the populace.

In politics, there are three questions that must be asked about something like this. The first is whether the facts are true. In this age, jumping on a false story can be bad for business. The next question is whether the thing is useful. That leads to the question of who it benefits. That is what must shape the response to everything. As the most cunning political animal in human history once said, “the question is always who shall overcome whom.”

With that in mind, here is a what Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former president had to say. He is also one of the savvier as far as using social media to transmit information to the West. As a result, he is someone who young people in Russia tend to look to for understanding what is happening in the Kremlin. Medvedev has proven to be one of the craftier politicians within the Putin inner circle.

“Once, quite a long time ago, I asked Durov why he did not want to cooperate with law enforcement agencies on serious crimes. “This is my principled position,” he said. “Then there will be serious problems in any country,” I told him.

He decided that his biggest problems were in Russia, and he left, and then also received citizenship/residence permits in other countries. He wanted to be a brilliant “man of the world” who lives well without a homeland. Ubi bene ibi patria!

He miscalculated. For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous. Of a different blood. Definitely not Musk or Zuckerberg (who, by the way, actively cooperates with the FBI). Durov needs to finally understand that one does not choose one’s Fatherland, just like one does not choose one’s times…”

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