MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the Telegram messaging app, miscalculated by fleeing Russia and thinking that he would never have to cooperate with the security services abroad.
Medvedev related a conversation he had with Durov several years ago in which Medvedev told him that if he did not want to cooperate with law enforcement agencies then he would have problems in any country.
Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said Durov wanted to be a ‘brilliant “man of the world” who lives wonderfully without a Motherland.”
“He miscalculated,” Medvedev said. “For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”
“Durov should finally realise that one cannot chose one’s the fatherland,” Medvedev said.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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