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Pavel Durov's detention

Russian diplomats doing their best in Durov case — MFA

Maria Zakharova said Russia had requested consular access

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Russian diplomats in Paris are doing everything they should as they deal with the detention of the Telegram messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"We emphasized right away that we understand the practice that exists in France - if a person has a French passport, officials in Paris do not grant access, usually treating detainees or arrestees as citizens of their country," she said at a news conference. "That's where officials in France are coming from, and we know that too. Still, what Russian diplomats should be doing, they are doing."

Zakharova said Russia had requested consular access. Regarding communication with defense lawyers, she said, it depends on whether they want to reach out.

"This communication as a rule <...> happens at the request or demand of a group of lawyers, or one lawyer, or an attorney, so lawyers or attorneys will reach out [to Russian diplomats] to the extent they need it," she went on to say.

Durov was detained at the Le Bourget airport outside Paris on August 24. The next day his detention was extended to 96 hours. Prosecutor in Paris accuse him, among other things, of complicity in drug trafficking, crimes against children and fraud, essentially treating him as an associate of the people that commit these and other offenses using Telegram.

The Russian Embassy in France told TASS that it plans to protect Durov's rights and seek consular access to him, but "the French side has so far avoided engagement on this issue.".

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