Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was ‘too free’ in the way he ran the messaging platform and that this led to his arrest.
‘Pavel Durov was too free,’ Lavrov said in a speech to students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), run by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The statements come after Durov was arrested and indicted last week by the French judiciary for offences related to the encrypted messaging platform, and was released but under strict judicial supervision.
For the minister, the investigation into the French-Russian citizen is a political manoeuvre by the West to exert power over Russia.
‘[Durov] didn't listen to Western advice to moderate his idea,’ added Lavrov, quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Durov, who also holds French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizenship, was brought before the Gallic courts in a case that includes 12 charges related to the dissemination of criminal content related to drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud via Telegram - a platform with almost a billion users.
The list of crimes includes complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable illicit transactions by organized gangs; refusal to cooperate with the authorities by sharing documents or information necessary to prevent illegal acts; and complicity in fraud and drug trafficking.
The 39-year-old Russian billionaire was arrested on 23 August after landing on a private plane at Le Bourget private airport near Paris. A few days later, he was released under a court order requiring a deposit of five million euros, an obligation to appear at a police station twice a week and a ban on leaving French territory.
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