Well, Russia has basically never had freedom of speech, except for a brief period in the 1990s, so it contributes nothing to his thesis in the tweet that "once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures."
As I understand it, Durov doesn’t agree with your statement — you can check point 5 of his 2014 manifesto [1]
[1] https://globalvoices.org/2014/03/13/pavel-durovs-seven-reaso...
That was before the Kremlin fully launched its repressive measures against the Internet, and before he was forced to leave Russia for refusing to cooperate with the authorities.