Telegram's Pavel Durov says French spy chief asked him to ban conservative Romanian voices

Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, has accused Nicolas Lerner of asking him to ban Romanian conservative voices.

Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, has accused the head of France's foreign intelligence agency Nicolas Lerner of asking him to ban Romanian conservative voices ahead of the country's elections, adding he refused the request.

Russian-born Durov is currently under judicial supervision in France, holed up in Paris' glitzy Crillon hotel after being placed under formal investigation for alleged organised crime on Telegram.

He said it was there that Lerner, who leads the DGSE foreign spy agency, approached him.

"This spring at the Salon des Batailles in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused," Durov wrote on X late on Sunday.

"We didn't block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won't start doing it in Europe."

The centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, won Romania's presidential election on Sunday in a shock upset over George Simion, a hard-right, nationalist rival who had pledged to adopt a path inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump's politics.

The Romanian result was a relief for centrist policymakers in Brussels where there is concern that popular anger with mainstream elites over migration and cost of living pressures could bolster support for far-right parties and erode unity on the continent over how to deal with Russia.