Telegram founder Durov founder arrested in France: Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Sunday after arriving there from Azerbaijan, international media reported. The Russian-born Durov, who has French and UAE citizenship (he lives in Dubai), was wanted by French authorities on charges reportedly related to his company’s unwillingness to cooperate on “cyber and financial crimes”. Allegedly the authorities are especially concerned by a failure to monitor “illegal child abuse activity,” on the app, which boasts over 900 million users worldwide. Telegram is known for its freewheeling lack of moderation, making it a favored means of secure communication by users ranging from dissidents against authoritarian regimes to criminals and terrorists. The arrest drew ire from Russia, where it is an important communications and messaging platform for Russian soldiers, propagandists, and war supporters, making Durov of great potential interest to Western intelligence services.  

Major US sanctions drop: On Friday, the US State Department and OFAC announced a major raft of sanctions – nearly 400 designations – just in time for Ukrainian Independence Day. The designations target Russian military-industrial supply networks as well as the Russian energy sector (including additional designations related to the LNG-2 project), potentially impacting flows of critical technologies (including machine tools), on the one hand, and revenues to feed Russia’s war effort, on the other. The designations target Russian, Belarussian, Turkish, Emirati, and Chinese individuals and entities, among others, and have drawn Chinese anger. 

Modi visits Zelensky: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, emphasizing Indian commitment to “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity.” The Kyiv trip follows Modi’s visit to Moscow in July during which he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, shortly after Indian elections in which his BJP party stayed in power but lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 2014. The visit is the latest of the controversial Indian leader’s attempts to position his country as a leading power while playing a balancing role between the US and its allies, Russia, China, and the Global South. 

Calls for additional sanctions as regime-controlled court declares Maduro winner in Venezuela elections: Venezuela’s top court declared authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro the winner in July’s disputed elections on Thursday, in a claim that was widely rejected by governments across the region and the United States. With overwhelming evidence that the opposition won, Maduro’s attempt to retain power has been widely condemned as a brazen theft – and may be seen as a case study for the power (or lack thereof) of US sanctions when used as a simple coercive political tool. Nonetheless, the US has reportedly drawn up a list of Venezuelan officials to be targeted with additional sanctions, and calls have escalated for additional pressure tactics following the ruling, including revoking Chevron’s license to export Venezuelan oil and targeting Venezuela’s state-owned businesses. 

Attention falls on Houston-based oilfield services firm SLB, as it continues to work in Russia: Reporting earlier this month by London-based environmental activist and investigative NGO Global Witness and the Financial Times documented how Houston-based international oilfield services firm SLB (formerly Schlumberger) has doubled down on its investments in Russia, prompting additional coverage in other outlets last week. One of the key points highlighted in the reporting is that the Russian energy sector is – deliberately – not comprehensively sanctioned, the US and its allies being keen to prevent excessive disruption to global energy markets. This is even in the face of a meat grinder of a war of aggression that has likely cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The State Department stated in May that it did not believe SLB has violated sanctions and understood its “guard rails.”