Maria Butina said 'freedom of speech in Europe is dead' over the Russian-born billionaire's arrest at Le Bourget airport.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov is a 'political prisoner' after his arrest in France, a Russian official has said. The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire behind the encrypted messaging app was detained after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday.
'Now basically they have a hostage and they will try to blackmail Russia, they will try to blackmail all the users of Telegram and not only try to get control but also try to block the network here in Russia.' Mr Durov left Russia in 2014 after losing control of his previous social media company Vkontakte . He refused to comply with government demands to shut down opposition groups on the platform and would not hand over data on Ukrainian protesters to security agencies.
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