Telegram founder Pavel Durov “quite a cowboy” for the West, not listening to their advice on managing the platform, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

“Pavel Durov proved himself very independent. He was unwilling to listen to the West’s orders to manage his application. His situation is not unprecedented. The CEO of Meta Corporation (considered an extremist in Russia) Mark Zuckerberg he was called to the Senate and agreed to cooperate, which he himself admitted … The West has no inhibitions when it comes to other major Internet platforms,” Lavrov asserted.

“By taking these actions against Durov, Western countries are also doing again abuse of power the Russian Foreign Minister noted them.

“There is a general perception that this needs to be addressed in some way, but this process has only just begun. There also needs to be regulation around deepfakes, for example. I’ve seen some of them with my own face, you can’t help but laugh at them… I’m sure some protocols will be developed to prevent threats to anyone,” Lavrov added.