Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
An arrest warrant of the chief executive of the telegram messenger service Pavel Durov was executed by French police at an airport north of Paris.
According to media reports, Mr Durov was arrested after his personal jet had landed at the airport of Le Bourget.
The 39-year-old had been arrested under a warrant regarding an offence related to the messaging app, police said.
Russia’s embassy in France has said it is taking ‘urgent action’ to clear up the matter, according to the Russian TASS state news agency.
Durov had been flying in his private jet, according to the French TV channel TF1, which stated this on its site.
Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states.
It was also banned in Russia in 2018, after an earlier refusal by Mr Durov to give up user data.
But the ban was reversed in 2021.
It is the sixth largest social media platform in the world after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
Durov set up Telegram in 2013 and emigrated from Russia in 2014 after declining a Kremlin order to shut down opposition groupings on his previous social media, Vkontakte, which he later sold.