PROFILE - Pavel Durov: Billionaire behind Telegram arrested in France

By Gokhan Celiker

ANKARA (AA) — The founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested on Saturday evening after arriving in France's Bourget Airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.

The career of Durov, who holds citizenship in France, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and St. Kitts and Nevis, is marked by a rapid ascent to prominence as Telegram gained popularity across the world, accruing a massive fortune of $15 billion fortune.

Born in 1984 in what was then Leningrad and now St. Petersburg, Durov graduated from Saint Petersburg State University in 2006 and began to engage in programming and Internet projects.

In a year, Durov, along with his brother Nikolay, went on to found VKontakte, a website dubbed Russian Facebook that quickly attracted a user base mushrooming to over 20 million.

As the site's general manager, Durov increased his wealth to approximately 8 billion rubles (roughly $275.9 million at the time) by 2011.

However, he sold his shares in VKontakte and left the company and Russia in 2014.

Before his departure, Durov claimed that Russian officials had asked the company to divulge user data, a demand he said he refused.

- Telegram

In 2013, Durov launched the Telegram project, seen as an alternative to messenger WhatsApp, with the user base reaching 950 million by July 2024.

The app is popular in countries across the world, including in both Russia and Ukraine, where it is actively used by officials and military and political experts from both sides of the ongoing war.

After facing issues with Russian officials over VKontakte, Durov also came under the scrutiny of Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) due to Telegram.

The app was blocked in Russia in 2018-2020 as a result of a lawsuit for not sharing encryption codes with the country's Federal Security Service (FSB).

During this period, Durov argued that providing the encryption codes to intelligence agencies would constitute a violation of the Constitution due to legal protections on privacy.

Despite these troubles with Russian authorities, Durov's wealth swelled and he entered the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time in August 2024, placing within the top 300.

“I prefer to be free rather than taking orders from anyone,” Durov had said in an April interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.

- Detention and aftermath

Reports in Russian and French media indicate that Durov was detained on Saturday for facilitating access to illegal content on Telegram.

Durov's detention at the airport in Paris sparked numerous controversies. Elon Musk, the owner of X, also called for Durov’s release on his social media platform.

"Liberte (Freedom), Liberte!, Liberte?" Musk posted.

French judicial authorities decided to extend Durov’s detention by 48 hours after the ruling.

Telegram has declared that it complies with EU laws and dismissed accusations against Durov as "nonsense."

In a written statement, the company said that it complies with EU laws, including the Digital Services Act. "Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe," it said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova weighed in on the matter, saying that France had been given a note requesting access to detained Durov.

Noting that Durov is also a French national, Zakharova stated: "The issue is that France regards Durov primarily as a citizen of its own country."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned that it was too early to comment on Durov’s detention in France, saying: "We still do not know exactly what Durov is accused of."

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, suggested that Durov had made a mistake by leaving Russia.

*Writing by Esra Tekin in Istanbul