Durov was arrested at around 8pm on Saturday at Le Bourget airport, in the outskirts of Paris, by gendarmes from the GTA (Air Transport Gendarmerie).
The 39-year-old Franco-Russian was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman, French outlet TF1 Info reported.
Durov is a Russian-born entrepreneur and programmer best known for founding the social networking site VK (VKontakte) and the messaging app Telegram.
Born on October 10, 1984, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia, Durov is often referred to as the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” due to the similarities between VK and Facebook.
In 2006, Durov, along with his older brother Nikolai, launched VKontakte, which quickly became Russia’s most popular social network.
But his time at VK was not without controversy as Durov clashed with Russian authorities over demands to censor content and provide user data to the government.
In 2014, under increasing pressure, Durov was forced to sell his stake in VK and left the company.
After leaving VK, Durov focused on Telegram, a cloud-based messaging app that he and his brother Nikolai had launched in 2013.
