Pavel Durov, founder of the social media Telegram, was arrested in France on the evening of August 24 local time. Russia said that the United States was behind it.

According to RT, Ekaterina Mizulina, head of the Russian Internet Security Union, wrote on Telegram on the 25th that she was not surprised that Durov was arrested at the French airport. "I have always believed that traveling outside Russia is a big risk for Telegram owners, because they can be arrested at any time." She also said that similar things have happened before under the orders of the United States. She also said: "It is obvious that this arrest is an attack on TON (a blockchain-based platform originally developed by the creators of Telegram), in which major Russian companies have invested. This is partly a continuation of the US sanctions policy."

Mizulina said she believes "the Americans are behind the whole thing." She believes that the Telegram platform, which has more than 900 million monthly active users worldwide, is a thorn in the eyes of the Americans in terms of information dissemination. The French authorities did not make the decision to arrest Durov independently. She also said: "It turns out that all the gestures of the owners of Telegram to show goodwill to the West were wrong. Our President Putin warned about this many times, but no one believed him."

At the same time, Durov's former spokesman Georgy Loboushkin also said in an interview with RT that all this was planned by the United States. If he thought that France intended to arrest him, he would not have gone to Paris regardless of his own safety. "The arrest warrant came neither from the European Union nor from France, but from the United States. The United States has been targeting Durov for a long time, and Durov has often talked about this."

Durov, 39, founded the well-known Russian social networking site Vkontakte in 2006 and the instant messaging software "Telegram" in 2013. Today, "Telegram" is one of the most important social platforms used by users in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. As of July this year, the number of monthly active users of the platform has reached 950 million.

Durov left Russia in 2014 and has lived in the UAE most of the time. He currently holds citizenship of Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, France and the UAE. Forbes magazine estimates that Durov's assets are about $15.5 billion.

According to a report by French TV 1 (FT1) on August 24, Durov was arrested in France that evening and may face multiple charges including terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, etc. The French government believes that lax audit rules and encryption technology have led to criminals widely using the Telegram platform to engage in illegal activities.