US behind arrest of Telegram CEO, says Russian lawmaker and Putin’s ally

A senior ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Washington was behind the French arrest of Pavel Durov, the founder and the CEO of the Telegram messaging platform that plays a key role communicating the war in Ukraine.

Durov, the Russian-born entrepreneur, was arrested in France over the weekend as part of an investigation into crimes related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, French prosecutors said on Monday.