Technology | New information about the Telegram billionaire’s arrest: Visited Russia more than 50 times after his departure, often also in Finland

in France the founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging service was arrested over the weekend Pavel Durov visited Russia dozens of times between 2015 and 2021, independent Russian media revealed on the basis of a leak.

Durov has previously said he left Russia in 2014 after refusing Russian authorities’ demands regarding his other social media service, Vkontakte (now VK).

“There is no going back, especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities,” Durov stated after his departure.

At the same time, he published seven items the list about why you shouldn’t return to Russia.

French Durov, who received citizenship in 2021, was arrested near Paris late Saturday night. The French authorities suspect that he was guilty of deficiencies in the moderation of Telegram communication, which have enabled criminal activities, such as drug trafficking.

In response to the arrest, Telegram stated that Durov has nothing to hide.

Durov is due to hear more information about his fate from French authorities on Wednesday. Online magazine Politico according to the information, the French authorities have also issued an arrest warrant for Durov’s brother from Nikolaiwho co-founded Telegram.

The Russian authorities also quickly commented on the arrest of their citizen. Among other things, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov stated that French-Russian relations hit a new low with the arrest.

Durov there are several open questions about the arrest: did he know about the risk of arrest when he traveled to France? What kind of charges can be brought against him? What is Durov’s relationship with Russia?

“We don’t know what this is really about,” states the program director of the Institute for Foreign Policy Arkady Moshes.

“Durov has so far not received help from Russia while in custody. It seems that he wants to remain in the Western legal system and be treated as a French citizen,” notes Moshes.

Previously Durov has made it clear that he cannot return to Russia due to disagreements with the authorities.

Last year, he stated in an interview that he would visit countries that correspond to Telegram’s values.

“I don’t visit major geopolitical powers or other countries – like China, Russia or even the United States,” Durov told the Russian investigative website of The Insider by.

However, on Tuesday it emerged that Durov crossed the Russian border more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021.

The information is revealed in the gigantic leak of the Russian security service FSB containing border crossing data. They tell about Durov’s border crossings, among other things Russian media Važnyje Istorii (Important Stories) and The Ukrainian Ukrainian Pravda.

Information at least do not reduce the mysteriousness of the skein. Ukrainska Pravda points out that Durov’s relationship with the Russian authorities was so good in those years that he was not afraid of being arrested when crossing the border.

According to Važnyje Istori, after his departure in 2014, Durov returned to St. Petersburg as early as May 2015. After that, until 2017, he visited Moscow and St. Petersburg at least 41 times, spending a significant part of 2017 in Russia.

According to the information, Durov also traveled frequently between Russia and Finland. Durov’s brother Nikolai also traveled to Russia from Finland.

Durov is known to have spent at least the summer of 2015 at a Russian-owned resort called Rantatalo in South Karelia’s Savitaipale, Helsingin Sanomat told in 2017. In the same year, claims were made that Telegram had transferred its employees to Finland.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, Durov left Russia by train for Finland on December 26, 2017, before there was a break in his border crossings for 2018 and 2019.

In the year In 2017, Russia increased pressure on Telegram, and in 2018, Telegram’s use was restricted when the platform refused to give authorities access to users’ encrypted messages.

Use was hampered in Russia until the summer of 2020, until on June 18, the Russian censorship authority Roskomnadzor published a statement in which it said it would stop blocking Telegram.

On the same day, there is a record in the FSB records that Durov boarded a plane in St. Petersburg.

After that, Durov is said to have spent his time in Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Europe. Durov has of media information including citizenship also in the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram has its headquarters.

The last information from the FSB leak about Durov’s visits to Russia is from 2021.

Durov the significance of the arrest for Russia is still unclear.

Earlier in August, Durov was speculated to have met the president Vladimir Putin in Azerbaijan. The Kremlin has denied the claim, which is based on the fact that both were in the country’s capital, Baku, at the same time.

In the media surprise has been aroused by the quick reaction of Russian diplomats, even the French president Emmanuel Macron has assured that the arrest has no political motive.

Moshes of the Foreign Policy Institute does not find the Russians’ reactions surprising when it comes to their own citizens.

Telegram is one of the most popular messaging services in Russia. It has also become a service that follows the progress of the war in Ukraine in real time. It is a propaganda channel for Russia, which is also known to be used in operational military use.

Russian war bloggers worried from the arrest, believing that the internal communications of the Russian military will soon be in the hands of the West.

Telegram has been criticized for enabling secure communication even for criminal and terrorist organizations.

University of Helsinki grant researcher Roman Kyrychenko has also been interviewed for the article.

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