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The founder of the instant messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been arrested in France.
TF1, BFMTV and other French media outlets, citing investigative circles, reported that the Russian wanted in France was detained by police at Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after arriving from Azerbaijan.
The Russian embassy in France has taken charge of the case, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow carried by Russia's state news agency TASS.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the French authorities had requested consular access to Durov. “The only problem is that Durov also has French citizenship. Accordingly, France will consider him, first of all, as its citizen,” she told Russian state television.
French media reported that Durov is wanted in France because the authorities have launched a preliminary investigation against him. He is suspected of drug trafficking, fraud and child abuse because he failed to intervene in the Telegram application and cooperate with law enforcement agencies. According to the TF1 channel, an investigation against Durov may be opened on Sunday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that its embassy in Paris had immediately taken the necessary steps and that efforts were being made to clarify the situation, “although the businessman's representatives had not submitted a request for assistance,” TASS reported.
Durov founded Telegram with his brother Nikolai after they launched Vk.com, a kind of Russian Facebook. Telegram is one of the most important online networks in Russia, and many authorities and politicians have accounts there. Both sides in the conflict in Ukraine use the service to make public statements.
Durov had a difficult relationship with the Russian authorities, and refused to pass on data on participants in the protest movement in Ukraine against then-President Viktor Yanukovych to the Russian intelligence service. He himself fled Russia shortly afterwards.
The Durov brothers promised to protect Telegram users' data, leading to a falling out between the eccentric internet billionaire and Russian authorities several years ago.
But there are also accusations against the brothers in the West. The founders of Telegram have been accused of not taking enough action against hate speech and incitement to violence, although Western and Russian authorities are said to have succeeded in persuading Telegram to remove Islamist terrorist propaganda.
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