French President Emmanuel Macron offered Telegram founder Pavel Durov to move the messenger’s headquarters to Paris. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing knowledgeable sources.

According to the newspaper, this happened six years before Durov’s arrest, when he was in France and had lunch with the country’s president. It was during the meeting in 2018 that Emmanuel Macron voiced the proposal.

However, Pavel Durov refused at the time. According to one of the publication’s interlocutors, the French leader even discussed the possibility of granting him French citizenship. Interestingly, in 2021, the founder of Telegram did receive French citizenship.

A year before he met with Macron, in 2017, French spies targeted Durov as part of a joint operation with the UAE that resulted in the hacking of his iPhone. French security officials were extremely concerned that the Islamic State was using Telegram to recruit fighters and plan attacks.

According to a person close to Telegram’s founder, the company has been ignoring subpoenas and court orders sent by law enforcement agencies for years.

As a reminder, on August 24, 2024, Pavel Durov was arrested in France. He was detained on Saturday evening at Paris Le Bourget Airport.