The founder of online messaging service Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been arrested in France.
The Russian, who is wanted in France, was arrested by police at Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan, broadcasters TF1 and BFMTV reported, along with other French media outlets, which have turned to investigative sources.
According to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, quoted by Russia’s state news agency Tass, the Russian embassy in France has taken up the case.
French authorities have been urged to grant Durov consular access, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “The only problem is that Durov also has French citizenship,” she explained on Russian state television. “Therefore, France will consider him primarily its citizen.”
French media reported that Durov was wanted in France because authorities had opened a preliminary investigation against him. He is suspected of complicity in drug trafficking, fraud and child abuse for failing to intervene in Telegram and to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. According to TF1, an investigation against Durov could be opened on Sunday.
Tass reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the Russian Embassy in Paris had immediately taken the necessary steps and that attempts were being made to clarify the situation, “although the businessman’s representatives did not submit a request for assistance.”
Durov founded Telegram with his brother Nikolai after they had both launched the network Vk.com, a kind of Russian-language Facebook. Telegram is one of the most important online networks in Russia and many authorities and politicians have accounts there. The service is used by both sides in the conflict in Ukraine to make public statements.
Durov’s relationship with Russian authorities is considered difficult and he refused to provide Russian intelligence with information about participants in the protest movement in Ukraine against then-President Viktor Yanukovych. He himself fled Russia shortly afterwards.
The Durov brothers pledge to protect Telegram users’ data, which led to a conflict between the eccentric Internet billionaire and Russian authorities a few years ago.
But there are also accusations against its brothers in the West. Telegram’s founders are accused of failing to take sufficient action against hate speech and incitement to violence, although Western and Russian authorities have reportedly succeeded in persuading Telegram to remove Islamist terrorist propaganda.
