Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport, police sources said. Telegram says Durov has nothing to hide. Durov holds French and United Arab Emirates nationality. Russia says Durov's rights should be respected. Russian MP: Freedom of speech is dead in Europe. PARIS/MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, was arrested and detained shortly after arriving on a private jet at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late on Saturday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The arrest of the 39-year-old tech billionaire prompted warnings from Moscow to Paris on Sunday that he should be given his rights, and criticism from X owner Elon Musk that it was an attack on freedom of speech in Europe.
There was no official confirmation of the arrest from France, but two French police officials and a Russian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.
One of two French police sources said police noticed he was on the passenger manifest before the jet arrived and moved to arrest him because there was an arrest warrant out for him in France.
In a statement about the arrests, Telegram said: “Telegram complies with EU law, including the Digital Services Act, and our moderation is within industry standards and is constantly being improved.”
“Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently to Europe,” the company said. “It is absurd to claim that the platform or its owners are responsible for misuse of the platform.”
Durov, a dual French-United Arab Emirates citizen, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegations that a lack of moderators on Telegram and poor cooperation with police allowed a wide range of crimes to be perpetrated, a third French police official said.
The Cybersecurity Gendarmerie and France's national anti-fraud police force are leading the investigation, the source said, adding that the investigating judge specializes in organized crime.
“We await a speedy resolution to this situation. Telegram stands with you,” it said.
The French Interior Ministry, police and Paris prosecutor's office declined to comment.
Maria Butina, a Russian lawmaker who spent 15 months in a U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov was a “political prisoner and the victim of a witch hunt by the West.” Durov's arrest was front-page breaking news in Russia.
Dubai-based Telegram was founded by Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on VK, a social media platform he sold.
With nearly 1 billion users, the encrypted application is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet republics, positioning it as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
The origins and influence of Telegram
Durov, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $15.5 billion, said in April that despite pressure from some governments, the app should remain a neutral platform and not be a “geopolitical actor.”
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Facing pressure from within Russia, Durov came up with the idea for an encrypted messaging app, with the encryption designed by his brother Nikolai.
“I would rather be free than follow someone else's orders,” Durov said in April as he left Russia to look for new bases for his company, including Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become a primary source of unfiltered, sometimes graphic and misleading content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.
The platform has become what some analysts call a “virtual battlefield” for the war and is frequently used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government officials, as well as the Russian government.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had sent a letter to Paris requesting to meet with Durov, who it said was a French citizen.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Durov had made a mistake by fleeing Russia and thinking he would never need to cooperate with foreign security services.
Medvedev, who often uses Telegram to criticise and insult the West, said Durov wanted to be “an intelligent 'man of the world' who would live a great life without a homeland”.
“He miscalculated,” Medvedev said. “Now to all our common enemies he is Russian and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”
Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the platform refused to comply with a court order that would have given national security agencies access to users' encrypted messages.
The move disrupted many third-party services but had little impact on Telegram's use, but the ban sparked large-scale protests in Moscow and drew criticism from NGOs.
Platforms under scrutiny
Telegram says it is “committed to protecting its users' human rights, including privacy and freedom of speech and assembly.”
Durov has previously accused the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies of trying to install backdoors into the platform. The FBI has not commented on these allegations.
But Telegram's growing popularity has drawn scrutiny from several European countries, including France, over security and data leak concerns.
“I can't believe in Europe in 2030 you can be executed for liking a meme,” Musk, the billionaire owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said in response to news of Durov's detention.
Outside the French Embassy in Moscow, one protester held a sign that read “Freedom for Pavel Durov.”
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Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Gilles Guillaume, Corentin Chapron and Alain Acot in Paris, Lydia Kelly in Melbourne, Camille Reynaud in Toronto and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow. Writing by Lydia Kelly, Ingrid Melander and Guy Faulconbridge. Editing by Lincoln Feast, Kim Coghill, Louise Heavens and Lisa Shoemaker.
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