Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested at French Airport: Here’s What We Know So Far

Pavel Durov, the Russian billionaire who founded and owns the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet on Saturday night and has been detained, three sources told Reuters.

The arrest of the 39-year-old tech billionaire prompted Moscow to warn Paris on Sunday that it should respect his rights and criticize X boss Elon Musk for saying freedom of speech in Europe was under attack.

There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but two French police sources and an unnamed Russian source said Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.

One of the two French police sources said that before the jet arrived, police discovered his name on the passenger list and arrested him because he was wanted in France.

“Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act — our moderation practices adhere to industry standards and are constantly improving,” Telegram said in a statement about the arrest.

“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and regularly travels to Europe,” the post said. “It is absurd to assume that a platform or its owners are responsible for the misuse of that platform.”

Durov, who holds dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegations of allowing various crimes to occur due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a third French police source said.

A cyber-gendarmerie unit and France’s national anti-fraud police unit are leading the investigation, the source said, adding that the investigating judge is a specialist in organized crime.

“We are waiting for a quick resolution to this situation. Telegram stands by all of you,” Telegram said.

The French Interior Ministry, police and the Paris prosecutor’s office did not comment.

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in a US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov “is a political prisoner – a victim of a Western witch hunt”. Durov’s arrest has dominated news headlines in Russia.

Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VK, which he has since sold.

The encrypted app, with nearly 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. It ranks as one of the largest social media platforms behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.

ORIGIN AND IMPACT OF TELEGRAM

Durov, who Forbes estimates is worth $15.5 billion, said in April that some governments had sought to pressure him, but the app should remain a neutral platform and not “a factor in geopolitics.”

Durov came up with the idea for an encrypted messaging app when he faced pressure in Russia. His younger brother, Nikolai, designed the encryption.

“I would rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov said in April of his departure from Russia and search for a headquarters for his company, which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram became a major source of uncensored — and sometimes misleading and shocking — content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.

The platform has become what some analysts have called a “virtual battlefield” for the war, used extensively by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his officials, as well as the Russian government.

The Russian foreign ministry said it had sent a note to Paris requesting access to Durov, although it said he had French citizenship.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Durov was wrong to flee Russia and thought he would never have to cooperate with foreign security agencies.

Medvedev, who regularly uses Telegram to criticize and insult the West, said Durov wanted to become “a ‘great man of the world’ who lives wonderfully without the Fatherland”.

“He miscalculated,” Medvedev said. “For all our common enemies today, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”

Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order allowing state security agencies access to users’ encrypted messages.

The move disrupted many third-party services, but did not significantly affect Telegram’s availability there. However, the ban sparked large protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.

PLATFORM UNDER TEST

Telegram said it is “committed to protecting users’ privacy and human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”

Durov has previously accused US law enforcement agencies like the FBI of trying to plant a backdoor into the platform. The FBI has not yet commented on those allegations.

However, Telegram’s rise in popularity has prompted several European countries, including France, to step in over concerns about security and data breaches.

Musk, the billionaire owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said after news of Durov’s arrest: “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re going to be executed for liking a meme.”

Outside the French embassy in Moscow, a lone protester held a sign that read: “Liberty pour Pavel Durov”.

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