WATCH what Durov told Carlson about US pressure

American security agencies have been trying to get more control over Telegram for a long time, the tech entrepreneur believes

Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov told American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson that he was getting “too much attention” from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies while on US soil, according to an interview released in April, several months prior to his arrest in France.

He has also claimed that US agencies had tried to recruit Telegram employees and convince them to create a backdoor into the messenger.

The Russian-born tech billionaire was arrested by French authorities in a Paris airport on Saturday, reportedly on charges related to his alleged complicity in fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and promoting terrorism. However, Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of Russia’s Safe Internet League, suggested that France was acting at the behest of the United States.

WATCH what Durov told Carlson about his life in the US: