Founder and CEO of messaging service Telegram Pavel Durov was arrested over the weekend in France, shortly after he landed in Paris on a private jet.
Durov’s arrest has received a lot of attention in the world both due to Telegram’s popularity and Durov’s own significant social status.
Telegram is a messaging service with almost a billion active users worldwide. Durov, who lives in Dubai, is a billionaire who has often been mentioned in the lists of the world’s most influential young people and wealthiest individuals.
A math genius who became interested in programming as a teenager
Durov was born into an academic family in the Soviet Union’s Leningrad, which is now known as St. Petersburg. However, he spent a large part of his childhood in Turin, Italy, where his father worked. Durov’s mother’s family roots are in Ukraine.
While living in Italy, Pavel Durov and his older brother Nikolai Durov were mathematically gifted children. Nikolai even won numerous gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad and presented his calculation skills on Italian television.
When they were young, Pavel and Nikolai became interested in programming. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they moved back to Russia in the early 90s. With the IBM computer they bought in Italy, they were able to continue their programming hobby.
“Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg” was targeted by the authorities
Durov founded a social media called VKontakte in 2006 after graduating from St. Petersburg State University. VKontakte was founded to compete with the American Facebook, which was growing in popularity at the same time.
VKontakte’s popularity grew rapidly and the 10 million user mark was exceeded in less than two years. Durov soon began to be called Russiato Mark Zuckerberg.
VKontakte became the most popular social media in Russia, and soon Durov ran into trouble as president Vladimir Putin with the administration.
In 2011, the Russian government demanded that Durov remove from VKontakte opposition politicians like To Alexei Navalny profiles. Durov cheerfully refused and, in addition, published on his website the requests made to him by the authorities.
In 2013, Ukrainian pro-democracy activists began using VKontakte to target the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych to organize anti-government protests, prompting the Russian government to once again appeal to Durov to provide them with information on Ukrainian users.
Soon after, businessmen close to Putin gained power in the company, and Durov was allowed to leave. He made millions by selling his shares and moved abroad. At this point, VKontakte had almost 200 million registered users.
Durov becomes an internet freedom fighter
Next, Durov’s attention turned to messaging services.
Together with his brother Nikolai, he wanted to create a completely encrypted service that the authorities would not be able to spy on. He cited the Russian government’s attempts to gain access to VKontakte user data as the reason.
The messaging service was named Telegram and it soon gathered hundreds of millions of users.
Messages sent through Telegram can be completely protected if necessary, and this made the platform popular among criminals, such as terrorists, drug dealers and people who transmit child pornography.
– You cannot protect a messaging service from criminals and at the same time keep it open to governments. It’s either protected or not, Durov said in 2016 in an interview with the American CNN news channel.
Telegram sealed Durov’s identity. He began to appear more and more as a freedom fighter with ultra-liberal values who defends citizens’ digital freedoms.
Financial media Forbes estimated Durov’s wealth almost 14 billion euros. Durov, who lives in Dubai, is said to be the richest resident of the UAE with a foreign background.
For the past decade, he has lived a life where he flies from one country to another on a private plane, and introduces the öky life to 1.5 million For an Instagram followeroften wearing scanty clothing.
The macho image is also fueled by Durov’s own claim that he has fathered more than a hundred children by donating semen.
He has citizenship of Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, United Arab Emirates and France.
The relationship with the Russian administration is shrouded in obscurity
Telegram has almost a billion monthly active users worldwide. Its popularity eventually became Durov’s fate.
He was arrested over the weekend in France, where criminal charges have been brought against him for numerous crimes.
They are all related in one way or another to the fact that Durov has not compromised his principles regarding the freedom and independence of Telegram, but has turned a blind eye to crimes committed using the application.
Durov’s relationship with the current Russian administration is partially shrouded in obscurity. He was in the teeth of Putin’s administration for a long time, and there were attempts to ban the use of Telegram in Russia.
However, in recent years it has become one of the most popular foreign online services in Russia, and it is allowed to operate freely in the country. According to CNN Telegram is one of the most popular communication channels of the Russian government.
Durov’s critics have drawn attention to how freely Telegram, which was previously in Putin’s hands, is allowed to operate in Russia.
More water to the mill was added when Durov vacationed in Azerbaijan at the same time as Putin visited the country just days before Durov’s arrest in France.
When information about Durov’s arrest reached the Russian authorities, said the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova the country to “take immediate action” to help this.