Russia requests consular access for Telegram Co-Founder from France
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Tuesday that Russian authorities have requested consular access for Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov, who was detained over the weekend in France.
During a press conference following a meeting with his Yemeni counterpart, Shaya Mohsen al Zindani, in Moscow, Lavrov stated that the request for consular access to Durov, who was arrested on Saturday at an airport near Paris, “is under review.”
Lavrov also remarked that “relations between Moscow and Paris are at an all-time low, partly due to France’s stance on issues of freedom of expression, freedom of information dissemination, and overall respect for the journalistic profession,” according to the TASS news agency.
The French prosecutor’s office has charged Durov with a total of twelve offenses, including “complicity in possessing pornographic images of minors,” “complicity in the acquisition, transport, possession, offering, or trafficking of drugs,” and “complicity in organized fraud.”
Durov is accused of “providing cryptology services without proper declaration,” according to the charges brought forward as part of a preliminary investigation by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office’s cybercrime division.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that Durov’s detention is “part of an ongoing judicial investigation” and therefore “not a political decision,” a message Macron wanted to convey in response to “false information” circulating about the case.
