Telegram says Russian founder has nothing to hide after arrest

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of Telegram who was arrested in Paris, has nothing to hide and it is absurd to hold an owner responsible for abuse of the messaging and social media platform, Telegram said in a statement.

Durov, a 39-year-old billionaire, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday from Azerbaijan.

The arrest of the Telegram CEO prompted a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights, and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack.

Telegram, in a short statement released after midnight Paris time, gave no details of the arrest but said the Dubai-based company abided by European Union laws and its moderation was “within industry standards and constantly improving.”

“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” Telegram said. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”

“We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a French police source said.

A cybersecurity gendarmerie unit and France’s national anti-fraud police unit are leading the investigation, the source said, adding that the investigative judge was specialized in organized crime.

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

The encrypted application, with close to 1 billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.

Durov, who was born in Soviet Leningrad and graduated from St Petersburg State University, lists his political views as “libertarian” and says he was inspired by Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs.

Estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion, Durov said in April some governments had sought to pressure him, but the app should remain a neutral platform and not a “player in geopolitics.”

Durov, whose arrest led news bulletins in Russia, came up with the idea for an encrypted messaging app while facing pressure from Russian authorities. His younger brother, Nikolai, designed the encryption.

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

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov “is a political prisoner — a victim of a witch-hunt by the West.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, said on Sunday that Durov miscalculated by fleeing Russia and thinking that he would never have to cooperate with the security services abroad.

Medvedev related a conversation he had with Durov several years ago in which Medvedev told him that if he did not want to cooperate with law enforcement agencies then he would have problems in any country.

Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said Durov wanted to be a ‘brilliant “man of the world” who lives wonderfully without a Motherland.”

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

“Durov should finally realize that one cannot chose one’s the fatherland,” Medvedev said.