The arrest of Telegram platform founder Pavel Durov caused a series of reactions in Europe and the world, and relations between France and Russia were further damaged.
As previously emphasized, Durov was arrested on Saturday around 8:00 p.m. immediately after landing at Le Bourget airport. Durov, who also holds French citizenship, was returning from Azerbaijan and, according to French media, planned to spend one night in Paris.
However, French investigators ordered his arrest and stated that Durov, managing the Telegram platform, did not act against activities that contained criminal content.
“On Telegram, the content is not moderated, and Durov refused to cooperate with the authorities in the context of investigations. The targeted areas of the prosecution are broad, ranging from fraud to drug trafficking, cybercrime and the promotion of terrorism and fraud,” writes Le Parisien.
Who is Pavel Durov?
The name of Pavel Durov has long been represented primarily in Russia, and with the development of online chat platforms also throughout Europe. Durov was born in St. Petersburg on October 10th, 1984, and in 2006 he founded the first social network VKontakte. His brother Nikolai also helped him in this work, and VKontakte was supposed to represent the most serious counterpart to Facebook.
“Durov had the goal of putting individual freedoms before everything. In 2011, the Kremlin asked him to block communities that oppose the Russian government and to hand over the data of users, especially Ukrainian activists, which he refused,” the analysis states.
Due to increasing pressure, Durov was forced to sell the company and leave Russia in 2014.
“I prefer to be free than to take orders from anyone,” he said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
With the money from the sale of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, together with his brother, founded the encrypted messaging service Telegram.
After passing through Berlin, London and San Francisco, in 2017 Pavel Durov established the company’s headquarters in Dubai, the city where he mostly lives and whose business environment and neutrality he praises.
His fortune is estimated at 15.5 billion dollars. However, during one of the interviews, Durov emphasized that he does not own any real estate, airplanes or yachts.
He said that he is only interested in pure money and investments in bitcoin.
“I think we’re doing a good job with Telegram. We have 900 million users, and soon probably a billion,” he said in an interview in April.
When it comes to his personal life, Durov said that he leads a solitary life, abstaining from meat and alcohol.
“In July, he boasted that he is the biological father of more than 100 children thanks to sperm donations in a dozen countries. He said it was a civic duty,” writes Le Parisien.
Durov’s arrest has stirred passions in Russia and Europe in general, and former adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister Anton Gerashchenko posted on the X network some of the comments on Russian social media following Durov’s arrest.
“Telegram is the main information network, communication tool and Russian means of influencing the world. Telegram is the number one messenger application in Ukraine. It has 300 million users in India and is the leader in South and Latin America. In this way, Russia’s influence in the world could be lost,” said Gerashchenko, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
