Who Is Pavel Durov and What Are the Allegations Against Telegram?

Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram speaks onstage during day one of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 at Pier 70 on Sept. 21, 2015, in San Francisco. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

The CEO and co-founder of the messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been in custody in France since the night of Aug. 24, sparking a political and diplomatic dispute.

On Aug. 27, the Paris prosecutor said Durov would remain in custody for another 48 hours.

Who Is Pavel Durov?

At 8 p.m. on Aug. 24, after his private jet flew in from Azerbaijan and touched down at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, Durov was arrested by the French police and taken into custody.

The 39-year-old co-founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, an encryption expert, and Forbes estimates that he is worth $15.5 billion.

Born in Russia to wealthy parents, he spent much of his childhood in Italy and has French and Russian passports as well as citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

On Aug. 26, Telegram posted a statement saying Durov “has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.”

When he arrived in Paris, he was traveling with his girlfriend, Juli Vavilova, 24, a gamer and “crypto coach” based in Dubai.

The Moscow Times, an independent media outlet based in the Netherlands, reported, “Kremlin-linked Telegram news channels claimed that Durov sought a meeting with Putin during the Russian leader’s state visit to Azerbaijan on Aug. 18–19, but Putin allegedly turned him down.”

Durov left Russia in 2014, after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on another social media platform, VKontakte (VK), which he later sold.

“I would rather be free than to take orders from anyone,” he said earlier this year.

What Is Telegram?

Telegram is an app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats, and “channels” that can involve hundreds of people.

Unlike Meta’s WhatsApp, which has a limit of 1,024, Telegram’s group chats allow up to 200,000 people.

The icon of the Telegram messaging app. Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images

Critics have claimed that these group chats have been responsible for spreading disinformation.

Telegram offers encrypted communications, but that is not a default setting.

Encryption also does not work with group chats, unlike on Signal and Facebook Messenger.

Telegram says it has more than 950 million active users.

The app is most popular in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet countries, but it has become popular in Western Europe and North America, especially since WhatsApp changed its terms and conditions in 2021.

In France, it is used by, among others, officials in the presidential palace and in the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police and prosecutors.

Telegram has been used by extremists such as ISIS, drug traffickers, and pedophiles, but so have Snapchat, Kik, and a number of other apps on the market.

What Are Allegations Against Telegram?

Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor who authorized Durov’s arrest, published a statement in French on Aug. 26 that listed the 12 charges that her judicial investigation had opened “against an unnamed person.”

They are:

• Complicity—administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction by an organized gang.
• Refusal to communicate, upon request from the authorized authorities, the information or documents necessary for the performance and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law.
• Complicity—possession of an image of a minor of a child pornographic nature.
• Complicity—dissemination, offer, or provision by an organized gang of an image of a minor of a pornographic nature.
• Complicity—acquisition, transport, possession, offer, or transfer.
• Laundering of crimes or offenses by an organized gang.
• Provision of cryptology services aimed at ensuring confidentiality functions without a proper declaration.
• Importation of a means of cryptology not exclusively providing authentication or integrity control functions without prior declaration, narcotics.
• Complicity—Offer, transfer, or provision without legitimate reason of equipment, an instrument, a program, or data designed or adapted for an attack and access to the operation of an automated data processing system.
• Complicity—Fraud by an organized gang.
• Association of criminals with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by five years of imprisonment.

The judicial system in France operates differently from those in many other countries, and judges play a more active role in investigating and prosecuting crimes.

Telegram says it follows all European Union laws and its content moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving.”

Who Has Said What?

French President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 26: “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.

“The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”

Afra Al-Hameli, director of communications for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), wrote on X: “The UAE is closely following the case of its citizen Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who was arrested by the French authorities in Paris–Le Bourget Airport, emphasizing that the UAE has submitted a request to the Government of the French Republic to provide him with all the necessary consular services in an urgent manner.

“Prioritizing the welfare of UAE citizens, safeguarding their interests, and providing them with all aspects of support is a key priority for the UAE.”

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.