Telegram CEO’s arrest is ‘absolutely ridiculous,’ lawyer says

The News

French authorities arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Saturday in relation to a probe about a lack of moderators on the messaging app.

His lawyer on Sunday blasted the arrest as “absolutely ridiculous,” with Russian media and right-wing commentators calling his detainment an attack on free speech.

The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire was arrested shortly after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport in Paris.

Durov, a French-Emarati citizen, fled Russia in 2014 for failing to acquiesce to the Kremlin’s demands to suppress opposition voices on VK, another social media platform he founded. He “can hardly be called a Russian patriot,” Russian state media RIA Novosti wrote Sunday, but Moscow still called his arrest politically motivated.

Durov “miscalculated” leaving Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Reuters, adding that “for all our common enemies now, he is Russian — and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”

X owner Elon Musk, who is in the EU’s crosshairs over lack of moderation on his own platform, said the arrest was an attack on free speech.

“It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” Musk posted.

Durov founded Telegram in 2013 as a messaging platform to safely communicate while he faced pressure in Russia. He framed the app as a “neutral platform” and “not a player in geopolitics,” Reuters reported.

But the app has become the dominant communication platform for both Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with both sides accused of posting misleading — and often graphic — propaganda to mobilize their supporters.