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Russian lawmakers have hit back at reports of the arrest of Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov in France for failing to adequately moderate criminal activity on his messaging platform.

The Russia-born billionaire was arrested at the Paris-Le Bourget airport when he arrived in the country on his private jet from Azerbaijan on Saturday evening, according to French broadcaster TF1 and news agency AFP. 

The deputy speaker of the state Duma, Vladislav Davankov, said he had called on Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to secure Durov’s release. “The arrest of [Durov] could have political motives and be a means of obtaining the personal data of Telegram users. We must not allow this,” he said on his Telegram channel.

Andrey Klishas, head of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Law, described France’s actions as a “fight for freedom of speech and European values” in a sarcastic post on his Telegram channel.

Durov had a warrant out for his arrest in France after authorities in the country began a preliminary investigation into whether a lack of moderation on the Dubai-headquartered platform had facilitated illegal activity including terrorism, drug peddling, money laundering, fraud and child exploitation, according to reports. He is expected to appear in court on Sunday. 

The Russian embassy in France said it had requested consular access to Durov although there was no request from his representatives, according to Interfax.

A representative for Telegram and Durov declined to comment.

Founded in 2013, Telegram has gained prominence in recent years to become an important communications tool for global leaders and a resource for sharing news and organising in geopolitical crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict. With almost 1bn users, it is now one of the most popular messaging apps, rivalling Meta’s WhatsApp.

Durov’s positioning of Telegram as a privacy-orientated and censorship-resistant messaging platform has drawn scrutiny, with researchers warning that it has become a haven for criminals and hackers openly offering illicit services without repercussions. 

His detainment is likely to further increase global debate over the extent to which social media platforms and messaging apps should prioritise free speech or more tightly police the content they host, and whether executives should be held personally liable for lapses. 

The news has caused immediate backlash from free-speech proponents. “It’s 2030 in Europe and you’re being executed for liking a meme,” Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and a self-declared free-speech absolutist, wrote on his social media site on Saturday. Musk has clashed with EU and UK leaders over the perceived lax moderation of his platform, which police and analysts say was used alongside Telegram to organise and fuel far-right riots in Southport, UK. 

Durov, known for always wearing black and embracing extreme health fads, was previously hailed the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia” after in 2007 co-founding the country’s most popular social media network, VKontakte, in his native St Petersburg. 

However, he fled Russia in 2014 and sold the company, after refusing to comply with demands from the country’s security agency to share the data of certain Ukrainian users of VK, per his telling. A cryptocurrency fortune then allowed him to travel and fund Telegram before settling in Dubai, which he has called “neutral”. He currently has dual French-Emirati citizenship. Forbes estimates his net worth at $15.5bn. 

While Durov was born in Russia, he has been adamant that he has cut ties with the country, amid claims by critics that the Kremlin may still have links to or leverage over Telegram. 

“He thought his biggest problems were in Russia and left . . . He wanted to be a brilliant ‘citizen of the world,’ living well without a homeland,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a prominent rightwing commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday. “He miscalculated. To our common enemies, he is still Russian — unpredictable and dangerous, of different blood,” he said.

In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this year, his first since 2017, Durov defended his “hands-off” approach to content moderation, saying that “typically feedback from users is please do not start censoring any content”. 

However, over the years, he has occasionally bowed to public pressure as regulators have circled, taking down Isis-linked groups in 2019, and extremist and white supremacist groups involved in the January 6 2021 storming of the US Capitol building.

Earlier this year in Spain, a court ordered the app to be blocked in the country over an investigation into the sharing of illegal content protected by copyright. The ban has since been halted. 

Telegram’s guidelines ban terrorist channels and state that it does not allow spam and scams, illegal pornography or the promotion of violence on “publicly viewable Telegram channels”.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Siemens Healthineers has agreed to buy part of a Novartis business that specialises in producing radioactive chemicals used for cancer scans, in a further boost to the healthcare group’s biggest line of business.

The German group will pay more than €200mn for the diagnostic arm of Advanced Accelerator Applications, according to two people briefed on the deal. The companies separately confirmed the transaction.

AAA, which was bought by Switzerland-based Novartis in 2017, operates Europe’s second largest network of cyclotrons. These are used to manufacture the radioactive compounds that allow cancer, heart disease and neurological disorders to be detected on positron emission tomography (PET) scans.

Siemens Healthineers, which was spun out of parent company Siemens in 2017, said the deal would allow its US-based PET radiopharmaceuticals business — the world’s largest — to expand into Europe.

The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of the year, pending regulatory approval and negotiations with Novartis’s works council. Novartis put AAA’s diagnostics division up for sale last year, in an effort to divest low-growth parts of its business.

Compared with other types of medical techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), PET scans tend to be more expensive and capacity is more limited in state-run European health systems. But they are becoming a standard tool to diagnose certain cancer types.

The scans are typically used to detect solid tumours, such as lung, breast and cervical cancer. They are also used to discover where cancer has spread in the body and to monitor how patients are responding to treatment.

Selling imaging equipment is the biggest part of Siemens Healthineers’ business, and the deal secures a supply of critical radioactive materials, the people briefed on the details said. Siemens Healthineers’ imaging division generated nearly €3bn in sales, more than half of quarterly group revenues, in the three months to the end of June this year. Its market value was €58bn at close of trading on Friday.

The company said it was important to produce the materials near patients because the radioactive compounds have a short half-life and need to be used on the day they are manufactured.

PET scan capacity more than doubled in at least a dozen European countries between 2010 and 2020, according to data from the European Commission, pushing up demand for the radioactive compounds manufactured by AAA.

Novartis bought AAA for $3.9bn to access radiopharma drugs being developed by the French biotech. Radiopharma drugs, otherwise known as radioligand therapy, are a promising new field in cancer treatment. The drugs are designed to deliver a targeted form of radiotherapy that kills cancerous cells but with much less damage to healthy tissue.

AAA’s lead drug Lutathera was approved for use to treat neuroendocrine tumours in 2018 and is expected to generate $704mn in sales this year, according to analyst consensus estimates.

Novartis decided to sell AAA’s diagnostics arms — the much smaller part of the business — after concluding that “the growth of the molecular imaging business would be best supported under the ownership of a dedicated diagnostics shareholder”, the pharma group said.

As part of the deal with Siemens Healthineers, Novartis will also work with the German company to increase its supply of the nuclear isotopes used in radiopharma drugs such as Lutathera, the people added.

Kerry Kennedy, sister of Robert F Kennedy Jr, has expressed her profound disappointment and disgust at her brother’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump. She said “If my father were alive today, he would detest almost everything Donald Trump represents,” as quoted by CNN.
Kerry Kennedy criticized Trump’s actions, calling out his “lying, selfishness, rage, cynicism, hatred, racism, fascist sympathies, deliberate misinformation about vaccines, criminal felony convictions, and contempt for ethics and democracy.”
Kerry Kennedy went on to say, “I’m outraged and disgusted by my brother’s embrace of Donald Trump.I love my brother, but this is an outrage.”

This reaction comes in the wake of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s announcement on Friday that he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Donald Trump. During the press conference, Kennedy Jr acknowledged the difficulty of his decision, saying, “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory.”
Despite their differing views, Kennedy Jr. highlighted areas of common ground with Trump, particularly regarding the health of America’s children and environmental concerns. “Our children are the unhealthiest, sickest in the world. Don’t you want healthy children? Don’t you want the chemicals out of our food?” he asked, noting that Trump shared these concerns.

Kennedy Jr’s endorsement has been met with strong opposition from his family. A statement released by his relatives described the endorsement as a “betrayal” and criticized the alliance with Trump as “a sad ending to a sad story.” Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F Kennedy, took to social media, accusing RFK Jr. of being “for sale” and aligning with Trump for personal gain.
The endorsement marks a significant shift in Kennedy Jr’s political journey, which began with his candidacy for the Democratic nomination before transitioning to an independent run. His campaign has been marred by controversy, including accusations of amplifying conspiracy theories, particularly regarding Covid-19. Despite suspending his campaign, Kennedy Jr will remain on the ballot in some states.