The founder of the encrypted messaging service Telegram, Pável Dúrov, was charged late this Wednesday in Paris, after four days of interrogations, for several alleged crimes, including complicity in the dissemination of child pornography, although he was released on bail of 5 million euros and with the obligation not to leave French territory. Durov is also investigated, in a separate case, on suspicion of committing “serious violence” against one of his children, in 2017, when he was a child and living in France.
The 39-year-old tycoon of Russian origin was arrested last Saturday in Paris after landing on his private jet. Telegram is accused of serving as an instrument for terrorists, gangsters, pedophiles or scammers.
The press reveals multiple meetings between Dúrov and Macron before granting him a French passport
The arrest has become a delicate state matter because it affects an already very tense relationship between France and Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. Several Russian leaders – from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to former President Dmitri Medvedev – criticized the arrest for violating freedom of expression.
As more information becomes known, the shadows and mystery grow. According to the Ukrainian media Kremlingram, Durov entered and left Russia 62 times in the period 2015-2021, despite the magnate’s theoretical exile for his opposition to Putin.
Analysis
History is already an attraction thriller . Two solvent newspapers like The Wall street Journal (WSJ) and Le Monde They agreed to reveal that Emmanuel Macron and Dúrov met several times before the second was granted French nationality, according to the exceptional formula of “eminent foreigner.” The North American newspaper went further to ensure that Macron, at a lunch at the Elysée in 2018, offered Dúrov to install Telegram in Paris, something that did not happen, although the reward of giving him a French passport did occur. This document has allowed him to travel without obstacles through the EU (Dúrov also has the nationality of the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis). The curious thing about the relationship with Macron is that, since 2017, according to the WSJ, Dúrov was spied on by France due to the use of Telegram by Islamic terrorists.
The interest of the French president in Dúrov is not strange. The president has met with other giants of the digital field such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, but the meetings with Dúrov were kept secret.
According to the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé When arrested on Saturday, Durov said he was invited to dinner by Macron. The president has denied this, claiming that he was at his home in Le Touquet, in the Pas de Calais, and not in Paris.
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