Kremlin says it has yet to see accusations against Telegram’s Durov

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday it did not know what Telegram founder Pavel Durov, arrested by French police on Saturday, was accused of, and said Russia would wait for an official statement on his detention before commenting further.

Durov, the Russia-born billionaire owner of the Telegram messaging app, was detained at Le Bourget airport outside the French capital shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday, three sources told Reuters.

“We do not yet know what exactly Durov is accused of,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.

“We have not yet heard any official statement on the matter, and before we say anything, we should wait for the situation to be clarified.

“With what exactly are they trying to incriminate Durov? Without (knowing), it would probably be wrong to make any statements,” Peskov said.

Durov was still in detention on Monday and was being questioned by police, French media reported. Paris has not officially confirmed his arrest.

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship, was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes to be committed using his platform due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a French police source told Reuters over the weekend.

The encrypted Telegram app, based in Dubai, has close to 1 billion users and is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Durov himself left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on the VKontakte social media platform, which he also founded and has since sold.

Peskov on Monday said Russian President Vladimir Putin had not met Durov last week in Baku, where the Kremlin leader was on a state visit.