3 unsolved mysteries in the case of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

PARIS — The conspiracy mill has been in overdrive since Pavel Durov’s surprise arrest Saturday sparked outrage among free-speech advocates, who accused France of seeking to censor the Telegram messaging platform.
Since its launch in 2013, Telegram has become a go-to tool for political dissidents, battlefield generals and gangsters, amassing nearly one billion users, according to the platform.
Durov was released from custody on a €5 million bail Wednesday after being placed under formal investigation on six charges, including refusal to cooperate with law enforcement and complicity in managing an online platform “to enable an illegal transaction in an organized group.”
The investigation was prompted by Telegram’s reluctance to cooperate in a child abuse case, POLITICO reported exclusively, which led to warrants being issued against Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov, the platform’s co-founder.
While French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that the case was “in no way political,” the unprecedented arrest has brought a host of questions around the tech tycoon and his relationships to Paris and Moscow.
Though the average French person may not be au fait with Telegram, the app boasts at least one avid user in France: its president.
Macron has used the app since the early days of his first presidential campaign, nearly a decade ago, and continues to do so — despite the fact that his cabinet members were formally asked last year to stop using the platform.
Durov has met with the French president at least once, in 2018, a person close to Macron told POLITICO. The closed-door meeting was not publicized at the time. The two have met on “multiple occasions” since Macron first became president, according to Le Monde.
Macron has long pushed for France to become a home for big tech companies. “France will be the leading nation for super-innovation, change and profound transformation,” Macron said, a month after his 2017 election.
The president tried to convince Durov to move Telegram to Paris and offered him French citizenship, the Wall Street Journal reported. While Durov now holds French citizenship, Telegram is currently headquartered in Dubai.
When Durov was arrested at the Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening, he reportedly told police officers that he was in Paris to have dinner with Macron, according to French satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné. Macron on Thursday strongly denied inviting him. “I had absolutely no knowledge of Mr. Durov’s visit to France,” he said during a visit to Serbia.
The source close to Macron stressed that the French president was in his private vacation home in Le Touquet, in northern France, that day.
It wouldn’t be Durov’s first practical joke at the expense of French authorities. In April 2023, the billionaire changed his legal name in his French passport to “Paul du Rove,” a French adaptation of Pavel Durov — as recorded in the country’s Official Journal.
The founder, who was born in Russia, obtained French citizenship in 2021 through a procedure normally reserved for “a French-speaking foreigner who contributes through his or her outstanding work to the influence of France and the prosperity of its international economic relations.”
He is not the only tech tycoon to have followed this path. The American CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, who speaks some French, also received citizenship in 2018.
“It’s a decision we made in 2018, which I fully stand by,” Macron said Thursday. He added that it was “part of a strategy to allow women and men when they are artists, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, when they make the effort to learn the language, when they create wealth, when they ask for it, to grant them French citizenship. I did it for Mr Durov, who took the trouble to learn French, just as I did it for Spiegel. I think it’s good for our country.”
How Durov contributed to French influence is unclear.
The French presidency initially declined to take responsibility for granting the citizenship, telling POLITICO that the decision was made by the French foreign affairs ministry.
Durov is also a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, where he lives and runs Telegram. Abu Dhabi requested consular access to the CEO following his arrest — but the tech tycoon rejected the offer of help, according to someone close to him. “We are in touch with the French authorities about this case and Pavel Durov’s representatives,” a representative for the UAE diplomatic service told POLITICO.
Russian state media reported that Moscow had requested consular access as well. “The person concerned refused Russian consular protection and an Emirati consular visit, but agreed that the Emirati embassy be kept up to date on his situation,” a French government official told POLITICO.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Durov’s Russian citizenship, adding that he did not know how many other citizenships he held, the Russian press agency TASS reported.
Durov also obtained citizenship of the Caribbean island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis through an ” investment” program through which passports are granted by way of large financial contributions. Contacted by POLITICO, the country’s ambassador in Paris confirmed Durov’s citizenship but stressed that his ties to Saint Kitts and Nevis were limited. Durov has not reached out to the country’s consular services.
Durov’s departure from Russia in 2014 took place in the wake of tension with the Kremlin. Before launching Telegram, he founded a social media platform called VKontakte, and he claims to have refused to hand over the contact information of Ukrainian pro-democracy activists during the Euromaidan movement that year.
Yet Moscow has sought to get involved since his arrest, stating that it had offered “all the necessary assistance and support” to Durov, and accusing France of intimidation and a “direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication.”
Though Durov portrays himself as an opponent of the Kremlin, the reality appears more complicated. Even after leaving Russia and selling his share in VKontakte, Durov was rumored to maintain ties with the country. Alisher Usmanov, an oligarch close to Putin, reportedly helped to finance Telegram in its early stages. Telegram also initially worked out of the same Singer House office in St. Petersburg as VKontakte.
Durov’s brother Nikolai, who is also wanted by France, was reported by pro-Kremlin media to be living in St. Petersburg, where he works at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences. Тhe institution’s website lists Nikolai Durov as a staff member.
Despite Nikolai’s widely reported contributions to Telegram’s success, he has always stayed out of the spotlight, leaving that role to his younger brother. According to Telegram, Pavel supports the app “financially and ideologically while Nikolai’s input is technological.”
According to an Important Stories report, based on a leak of Russian intelligence data, Durov visited Russia “more than 50 times” between 2015 and 2021. Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for battlefield communications, by pro-war military bloggers and journalists and by millions of ordinary Russians and political officials. 
In Russian opposition circles, Telegram has a mixed reputation. On the one hand, it provides secure communication, safe from the FSB’s prying eyes, and an alternative platform for independent media blocked by the Russian authorities online. On the other, there have been a number of incidents in which channels or initiatives that could trouble the Kremlin were blocked or otherwise hampered by the platform.
Ukraine’s military largely uses the Signal platform for its communications, but most government agencies also have Telegram channels, and the app is also widely used for personal messages and blogs by Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
This story was updated.