The US ordered the French authorities to arrest Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of its sanctions framework, Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of Russia’s Safe Internet League and a member of the Civic Chamber, has claimed.
Writing on Telegram on Sunday, Mizulina said that Durov’s arrest at a Paris airport, reportedly on charges related to alleged complicity in fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and promoting terrorism, did not come as a surprise to her.
“I have long believed that traveling outside of Russia is a big risk for Telegram owners, as they could be arrested at any moment,” she noted, recounting that similar incidents where people had been detained at the behest of the US had occurred before.
“It is obvious that the arrest is an attack on TON [a blockchain-based platform originally developed by Telegram’s creators] in which major Russian companies have invested. That is, in part, a continuation of the US sanctions policy,” she stated.
The official added she believed “that the Americans are behind the situation as a whole,” arguing that Telegram, which has over 900 million monthly active users worldwide, is a thorn in their side in terms of information distribution. According to Mizulina, the French authorities did not act independently in their decision to arrest Durov.
“It turns out that all the overtures to the West by Telegram’s owners were a mistake. Our president [Vladimir Putin] warned about this many times, but no one believed him,” she concluded.
Durov holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates, Saint Kitts and Nevis, France and his native Russia. Moscow's embassy in Paris has said it is looking into the situation, although it has not received an official request for assistance.