PARIS, May 19. /TASS/. France’s Directorate General for External Security, or DGSE, has refuted Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov’s statement that it asked him to ban certain channels in an effort to influence the presidential election in Romania, the AFP agency reported.
According to the agency, the secret service acknowledged that it "had to contact Pavel Durov directly several times in recent years to remind him of his company’s responsibility to address terrorism threats and child pornography." However, the DGSE "resolutely rejects allegations that it has ever issued requests to ban accounts in connection to any electoral process."
Durov said earlier that Telegram refused a request from a "Western European government" to ban channels promoting conservative viewpoints in Romania ahead of the country’s presidential election. Later, Durov specified on his X page that the request came from French intelligence chief Nicolas Lerner.
The French Foreign Ministry subsequently denied allegations of trying to meddle in the presidential election in Romania. It slammed Telegram and X for circulating "unfounded allegations" and called for showing "respect for Romanian democracy." The ministry’s post was accompanied by a screenshot of Durov’s post with "faux" written in red across it.
Election in Romania
The May 18 presidential election in Romania was won by independent pro-European candidate and Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who secured 53.60% of the vote after 100% of the ballots were counted. His rival, the leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, George Simion, garnered 46.40%. Notably, 44.14% of Romanians who voted outside the country supported Dan and 55.86% - Simion.
The May 18 presidential poll was the country’s second go at an election after the first one was annulled last year. The Constitutional Court of Romania (CC) ruled to cancel the results of that election. Nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu was leading after the first round held on November 24, 2024. The court cited illegal financing of Georgescu's campaign, hacker attacks on the digital infrastructure used in the electoral process, as well as alleged, but unproven, Russian interference as the reasons for its decision.
Durov case
Durov was detained at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on August 24, 2024 on a number of charges, including complicity in administering an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions, committed within a criminal group, which, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, can carry a punishment of up to ten years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros. By decision of an investigating judge, the entrepreneur was placed under judicial supervision with an obligation to post a bail of 5 mln euros. He was also bound to report twice a week to the police and was forbidden to leave France.
After he was allowed to leave France in late March, Durov moved to Dubai but was to be back in France on April 7 in line with the judicial supervision terms. The Paris prosecutor’s office told TASS that it had not been notified about any violations by Durov but did not say whether Durov is in France or not.