Questions are being asked as to why Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, arrested last night at a French airport, would risk travelling knowing he would likely be detained.
Police swooped on the billionaire shortly after landing at the Bourget airport, outside Paris, following a flight from Azerbaijan, French outlet TF1 info reported, citing an unnamed source.
Durov, a Russian national, was travelling aboard his private jet and had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France, the news site added.
The 39-year-old tech tycoon was reportedly arrested at around 8pm local time while accompanied by his bodyguard.
Sources suggest he was fully aware that law enforcement in France had questions for him, and could move against home.
Sources told TF1 that he knew he was ‘persona non grata’ in France.
Questions are being asked over why Telegram CEO Pavel Durov (pictured), arrested last night at a French airport, would risk travelling knowing he would likely be detained
Irina Bolgar, 44, (pictured, right) claimed in Russian Forbes that Durov had fathered her daughter and two sons, born in St Petersburg in 2013, 2016 and 2017
Durov now lives in Dubai where Telegram is based and holds dual citizenship of both France and the United Arab Emirates (File image)
‘He made a mistake tonight. We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody,’ said the source.
Despite this he was put on the wanted list only during his flight, say French reports.
Russia itself has joined the fray, starting a diplomatic row with France by demanding consular access to the billionaire.
While Russia says it only wants his rights to be ensured, France has so far ‘avoided engagement’, though Russian diplomats are in contact with his lawyers, according to the Russian embassy in Paris.
Despite being born in Russia, Durov has not lived there since Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Crimea and the Donbas area of Ukraine in 2014.
He has consistently disavowed Russia’s invasion, and previously claimed he was forced out of Russia by the Kremlin.
Telegram messaging app founder and CEO Pavel Durov has reportedly been arrested at a French airport after stepping off private plane
Durov Founded the app in 2013 along with his brother Nikolai (Stock image)
Durov now lives in Dubai where Telegram is based and holds dual citizenship of both France and the United Arab Emirates.
He was quoted by TechCrunch in 2014 as saying: ‘I don’t have any business in Russia and have no plans to return there. I have no Russian citizenship anymore.’
Durov Founded the app in 2013 along with his brother Nikolai. It now has 950 million active users who can send messages, photos and videos, take part in chats for groups of up to 200,000 people and broadcast to unlimited audiences.
Intended as a rival to WhatsApp, Telegram users can have ‘secret chats’, in which messages are stored on devices rather than the cloud, and messages can also be set to self-destruct after a certain time period.
Mr Durov who is estimated to be worth around £12 billion, said in an interview earlier this year Telegram would remain a ‘neutral platform’ and not a ‘player in geopolitics.’
But the UK government has insisted social media companies such as Telegram must do more to stop extremists using their services for criminal means.
Activist Vladislav Mazur takes part in a one-person picket to protest against the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app
People walk past paper planes referring to the logo of the Telegram messaging app, which were placed during a gathering in support of freedom of expression near the French embassy in Moscow, Russia August 25, 2024
The campaigning organisation Counter Extremism Project said Telegram has taken some action to reduce the use of its platform by terrorists but commented on its website ‘it is clear that more can and should be done.’
Last month Durov revealed he was a prolific sperm-donor soon after a Russian woman based in Switzerland claimed that the unmarried Durov had fathered her three children.
Irina Bolgar, 44, claimed in Russian Forbes that Durov had fathered her daughter and two sons, born in St Petersburg in 2013, 2016 and 2017, and that they carry his name.
She posted pictures of herself and her children.
Until now, Durov is known to have had a daughter and son with ex-partner Daria Bondarenko, now based in Barcelona.
The children’s identities have not been disclosed but in 2021 Forbes Russia named them anonymously as among the country’s wealthiest heirs.
Bolgar said she had gone public because her children ‘started asking questions about why there is no information about them on the Internet, unlike their father’s two older children’.
Following his claim that he had multiple children through sperm donation, Bolgar hit back saying her three children were conceived and born ‘naturally’.
She claimed he was listed on their birth certificates.
‘Fortunately, Pavel and I, as a couple, did not have problems with reproduction [and did not need to] resort to the help of specialists in this matter,’ she said.
‘All our children were conceived and born naturally.
‘And yes, the children were officially recognised, according to the certificates of recognition of paternity and birth certificates.’
She declined to answer on the current status of their ‘relationship’.