Telegram founder Pavel Durov is facing multiple charges after he was arrested at Paris’ Le Bourget Airport on Saturday, Aug. 24.
Videos by Suggest
According to The New York Post, Pavel Durov was arrested at around 8 p.m. local time after flying in from Azerbaijan. French authorities issued a search warrant as part of a preliminary investigation into the Telegram founder. They believe his platform lacks” moderation” and it offers tools such as cryptocurrencies that make it complicit in global drug trafficking, pedophilia, and fraud.
The search warrant was only valid if the Russian billionaire stepped on French soil. “He made a blunder this evening,” a source explained. “We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody.”
Pavel Durov currently lives in Dubai, which is where Telegram is based. He is also a citizen of both France and the United Arab Emirates. He founded the platform in 2013 alongside his brother Nikolai. However, he fled Russia in 2014 after he refused to hand over encrypted user data to Russian officials. He also refused to silence government opposition.
Durov reportedly lives in “self-imposed” exile, noting that when he left the country, Russia was “incompatible with internet business at the moment.”
Pavel Durov was to appear before a French judge on Sunday, Aug. 25. He was charged with being connected to terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, and child pornography.
Pavel Durov Stated He Left Russia For Refusing to ‘Take Orders’ From Its Government
Pavel Durov was arrested just a few months after he spoke to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson about why he left Russia.
During his April 2024 interview with Carlson, Durov stated left the country after he refused to take orders from its government.
“I understood that I would rather be free. I wouldn’t want to take orders from anyone and I left behind probably a comfortable life,” he explained. “For me, it was never about becoming rich. For me everything in my life was about becoming free, and to an extent it is possible, my mission in life was to allow other people to also become free.”
Pavel Durov also told Carlson that Telegram is a “neutral” social media platform and is not a “player in geopolitics.”
“I think it’s the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech,” he pointed out.