Is it true that after the detention of Pavel Durov, the UAE froze the purchase of 80 fighters from France?

At the end of August 2024, the media reported a strict reaction of the authorities of the Middle Eastern country to detain the founder of Telegram, whose headquarters are located in Dubai. We checked whether this information is correct.

As reported, the United Arab Emirates at the end of August 2024 suspended an agreement on the purchase from France of 80 multi -purpose fighter Rafale. The freezing of the transaction, the value of which, according to various estimates, is from $ 17 to 20 billion, allegedly was the response to the detention of the founder and general director of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov, who, of the other time, has a passport of both countries. Also in viral publications it was said about the fears that arose in France that the Middle Eastern partner, because of the case against the entrepreneur, could completely stop military-technical cooperation with Paris.

This news was distributed by Russian -speaking media from Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other countries. Telegram channels were also widely shared, including "The ax live"(762,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Nevzorov"(545 000),"Insider UA"(473 000),"Newsach/Dv"(199 000) and"Falcon"(183 000).

Durov was detained on Saturday August 24 at the Parisian Airport "Le Bourget", where he flew on a private aircraft from Azerbaijan. After the four days that the founder of Telegram had been under arrest in Paris, the court brought charges against him on six points, but Let go On bail, he forbade to leave the territory of France. Local media celebratedthat in the framework of the authorities the entrepreneur as a citizen of France is considered; He also has it There is passports of Russia, the UAE and the Caribbean state of St. Kitts and Nevis.

On the deal between the UAE and France for the purchase of 80 Rafale multi -purpose fighters with a total value of € 17 billion It became known At the end of 2021. A few months later, the emirates made an advance, and supplies, according to open sources, should have begun in 2027 and end in 2031.

“Verified” did not find information about the freezing of this transaction in authoritative foreign sources in August 2024. Durov, however, did not leave the official Abu Dhabi without reaction. In the Foreign Ministry of the country They saidthat they are closely monitoring the process, and turned to the French government with a request to provide the entrepreneur as a subject of the UAE all the necessary consular services. Official representatives of the Emirates did not make other statements on this subject.

On a global scale, the news that the deal between the UAE and France was frozen due to the detention of Durov, two accounts on social networks X. In the evening of Moscow time on August 27, it published it @stairwayTo3dom (7.7 million views), and at night - @Kimdotcom (2.8 million). Both only mentioned the suspension of the agreement, but did not indicate the details and source of information.

Another user, @ivan_8848, published tweet (374,000 views), in which the news of a frozen transaction was accompanied by the plot of Al Jazeera.

This video lasting 1:41 min. No on the official site TV channel, neither on his Accounts V social networks. At the same time, several details are paid attention to:

• The UAE expenses for the purchase of French fighters are estimated at $ 10 billion, while authoritative media, including itself Al jazeera In 2021, they announced almost twice as much as the amount;

• The video dispersed through the networks is completely “dumb” - it is accompanied only by the applied music, and all the information is given in the form of subtitles. At the same time, Al Jazeera's rollers, as a rule, Contain natural noise and voice of people;

• The plot provides the words of the political analyst Marvan Bishar on the topic of the transaction between the UAE and France. In fact, these shots are taken from another interview Expert to the Al Jazeera channel, which was aired on August 22 and was dedicated to the camp in the United States.

• The font in subtitles from the viral video, although similar to the video used in genuine videos, is still slightly different. This is the most noticeable by the letters A, T and G.

All three users X mentioned above were previously caught in the publication of false information. So, anonymous blogger @stairwayto3dom placed On his page, Fakes on the actions of the Husites in the Red Sea, and the former owner of the MEGAUPLOAD and Mega Kita Dotcom, which owns the @kimdotcom account, Caught on the publication of inaccurate information about the war in Ukraine and support Kremlin narratives. User @IVAN_8848, who distributed fake video Al JAZeera, appeared in one of the analysis “Checked” as the source of disinformation related to the Israeli war against Hamas.

Although these English -speaking bloggers contributed The widespread extension of the Fake about the UAE and France in the media in different languages, they were not its primary sources. According to TGSTAT, a text message about the freezing of the transaction first appeared on Telegram on August 27 at 19:34 Moscow time on the channel "Military observer"(76,000 views). This channel repeatedly Facing In the analysis of "tested" as a source of misinformation. Fake video from Al Jazeera was first posted in 44 minutes in the channel "Cat Kostyan"(98 000). He is also Not once He distributed fake videos under the guise of real plots prepared by authoritative foreign television channels. After that, the news began to spread to Telegram and to the wire foreign language channels, after which I flowed into other social networks.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons

Fake

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