According to sources, Telegram founder Durov was arrested in France

By Ingrid Melander and Guy Faulconbridge

PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, was arrested and taken into custody late Saturday evening shortly after a private jet landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris, three sources told Reuters.

The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted a warning from Moscow to Paris on Sunday that he must be granted his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk, who said free speech in Europe was in danger.

There was no official confirmation of the arrest from France, but two French police sources and a Russian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, 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 plane arrived, police discovered that he was on the passenger list and arrested him because there was an arrest warrant out for him in France.

Durov, who holds dual French and UAE citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation. He is accused of allowing a wide range of crimes to be committed due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a third French police source said.

A gendarmerie cybersecurity unit and the French national anti-fraud unit are leading the investigation, the source said. The investigating judge specializes in organized crime.

Telegram and senior Telegram managers did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The French Interior Ministry, police and the Paris prosecutor's office did not comment. According to French media, Durov faces possible charges on Sunday.

Russian politician Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in a US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov was “a political prisoner – a victim of a witch hunt by the West.” Durov's arrest made headlines in Russia.

Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to close opposition communities on his now-sold social media platform VK.

The encrypted application, with almost a billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is considered one of the most important social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.

TELEGRAM

Durov, whose fortune is estimated at $15.5 billion by Forbes, said in April that some governments had tried to put pressure on him, but the app should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics.”

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Durov came up with the idea of ​​an encrypted messaging app to communicate with him while he was under pressure in Russia. His younger brother Nikolai developed the encryption.

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

Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered – and sometimes graphic and misleading – content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.

Some analysts call the platform a “virtual battlefield” of war, used extensively by both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials, as well as the Russian government.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had sent a message to Paris demanding access to Durov, even though he is a French citizen.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Durov made a mistake when he fled Russia, believing he would never have to cooperate with intelligence services abroad.

Medvedev, who regularly criticizes and insults the West on Telegram, said Durov wanted to be a “brilliant man of the world who lives wonderfully even without a homeland.”

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

Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order giving the state security service access to its users' encrypted messages.

The action disrupted many third-party services but had little impact on Telegram's availability there. However, the ban order sparked mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs.

“NEUTRAL PLATFORM”

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

Durov had previously accused US law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of trying to build a backdoor into the platform. The FBI has not commented on these allegations.

However, Telegram's increasing popularity has led to skepticism in several European countries, including France, over security concerns and concerns about data breaches.

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

In front of the French embassy in Moscow, a lone demonstrator held up a sign that read: “Liberté pour Pavel Durov”.

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Gilles Guillaume, Corentin Chappron and Alain Acco in Paris, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Camille Raynaud in Toronto and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Writing by Lidia Kelly, Ingrid Melander and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Gregorio, Lincoln Feast, Kim Coghill and Louise Heavens)