The United States is behind the arrest in France of the founder and CEO of the communication platform "Telegram" Pavel Durov, the speaker of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said today, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
Russian-born Durov was arrested in France over the weekend as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and illegal Telegram transactions. The United States, through France, is trying to exercise control over "Telegram," Vyacheslav Volodin said, without providing evidence for his claims.
"Telegram" is one of the few, and at the same time the largest, Internet platforms that are not controlled by the United States," Volodin said in a statement. "On the eve of the American presidential elections, it is important for (President Joe) Biden to establish control over "Telegram", the speaker of the State Duma also said.
The White House has not commented on Durov's arrest. French President Emmanuel Macron said the arrest was not politically motivated. The Kremlin said yesterday that it had not yet read the official French charges against Durov.
The Dubai-based communications app Telegram has about one billion users and is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet republics. After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, "Telegram" became the main source of unfiltered information about the conflict, notes Reuters. The platform has become, in the words of some analysts, a "virtual battlefield", being actively used both by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian representatives, and by the Russian government.