The United Arab Emirates, unhappy with the arrest of Pavel Durov in France? Arrested by the border police on Saturday, the boss of the Telegram platform was indicted and placed under judicial supervision on Wednesday, August 28. He is suspected in particular of “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction, in an organized gang” and of “laundering crimes or offenses in an organized gang”. He is also targeted for an investigation for “serious violence” against one of his children.
On Tuesday, an anonymous user claimed on X that the United Arab Emirates had “completely frozen the implementation of a contract to purchase 80 fighter jets from France”, in retaliation for the legal troubles of their national. Pavel Durov has four nationalities, including those of France and the United Arab Emirates, and Telegram is headquartered in Dubai. In another message, the same Internet user mentions a contract “about $10 million.” He supports his argument with a video using the logo and graphic charter of the Qatari media Al Jazeera. Is this rumor, seen and repeated in thousands of online messages, well-founded? Franceinfo sorts out the truth from the falsehood.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates reacted well to the arrest of Pavel Durov on Tuesday, August 27. In its official statement, it explains “follow the case closely” and asked France to provide Pavel Durov “urgently all consular services”. But this document does not mention at any time the contract for the sale of combat aircraft.
Ce “historic contract” was signed in 2021, announced at the time the shipping company Dassault Aviation, for “the acquisition of 80 Rafale F4 standard to equip the United Arab Emirates air force”. This is the agreement “the most important ever obtained by French combat aeronautics”, estimated then the CEO of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier. The value of this contract amounts to 17 billion euros, the Ministry of the Armed Forces had specified to franceinfo in 2021. Well beyond the 10 million mentioned by the anonymous Internet user. This order for Rafale, which must be delivered between 2027 and 2031, is still valid to this day. Neither Dassault, nor the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, yet the first concerned, have mentioned or commented on any questioning of the commercial agreement.
To fuel the rumor, the Internet user actually relies on a fake report, attributed to Al Jazeera. But there is no trace of such a video, neither on the platforms of the Qatari media, nor on its social networks. This fake report does however appear on a pro-Russian Telegram account, Tuesday, August 27. The comment that accompanies it is propaganda and insults the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron: “Durov personally knows the son of the UAE Prime Minister, and experts believe that France has greatly angered the sheikhs with its actions. Experts also swear that Macron is a fool.” This narrative was also taken up by Kim Dotcom, a German-Finnish entrepreneur known for founding the illegal download site Megaupload, on X.
Since then, this false information has spread identically within a galaxy of pro-Russian sites: Sputnik Belarus, Profinance.ru, Topwar.ru, Ulys Media… Among these sites which have relayed the rumor, we also find Grozny News, which Viginum (PDF), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ vigilance and protection service against foreign digital interference, has identified as part of “the historical ecosystem” from the pro-Russian disinformation network “Portal Kombat”. This network is made up of more than 200 sites massively relaying misleading content aimed at kyiv’s supporters in Europe.
