Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody, two sources told Reuters.
The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on Sunday 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.
There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but one French police source and one Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.
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 third French police source said.
“Pavel Durov is a political prisoner – a victim of a witch-hunt by the West,” Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters in the shadow of the Kremlin.
Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said she saw the arrest as part of an attempt by the West to gain control over Telegram. Durov’s arrest led news bulletins in Russia.
Telegram and senior Telegram managers did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The French Interior Ministry, police and Paris prosecutor’s office had no comment. Durov faces possible indictment on Sunday, according to French media.
Telegram, based in Dubai, 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 one 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.