Fighter for freedom of speech or criminal? Who Pavel Durov is and why he is being put on trial

Contents

• Who is Pavel Durov
• From the success of VKontakte to emigration from Russia
• Founding Telegram and why the app faces criticism
• Why Durov was arrested in France
• Durov's attitude towards Ukraine and the Russian invasion
• Ascetic and father of 100 children

Who is Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov will turn 40 this year. He was born on October 10, 1984, in then-Leningrad, into a family of educators. His father is a professor and Doctor of Philology who managed the Department of Philology at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) for many years, while his mother worked as a lecturer at the same university. He has an older brother, Nikolai, a programmer with whom Pavel founded his most successful projects.

As a child, Pavel Durov lived in Italy for a while due to his father's job and even completed the first grade in Turin. Later, the family returned to Russia, where he continued his education.

He attended a school with an emphasis on foreign languages and began showing an interest in programming at the age of 11.

For his first "project," he was denied access to computers at school. This punishment was given to Durov for setting a screensaver on all the school computers featuring a photo of the computer science teacher with the caption "Must die."

Photo: Durov was one of the most successful students at SPbSU (facebook.com/durov)

In 2002, he enrolled in the Faculty of English Philology at SPbSU. He repeatedly won olympiads in computer science and linguistics and received scholarships from the President of Russia and the Russian government for his academic achievements. He also completed training at the university's military department with a specialization in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare.

During his student years, he created the website Durov.com, which featured a library of term papers for humanities students and a forum for students of SPbSU.

From the success of VKontakte to emigration from Russia

Pavel Durov's name became widely known thanks to the site VKontakte – the first and most popular social network in the Russian-speaking world of the early 2000s. It was referred to as a Russian equivalent of Facebook, and indeed Durov was inspired by Mark Zuckerberg's social network concept.

The site launched in 2006 and, within two years, had over 20 million users.

VKontakte made Pavel Durov a billionaire. However, the highly popular social network attracted the attention of security services, as it was used by opposition activists in Russia for communication and organizing their actions.

In 2011, the FSB demanded the blocking of several Russian opposition groups, and during the events of the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine, the Russian authorities sought to access the personal data of protest organizers who were users of VKontakte.

Photo: The entrepreneur emigrated from Russia (facebook.com/durov)

As Pavel Durov stated in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, he refused to cooperate with Russian security services because the goal of his social network was "freedom of expression."

Ultimately, under pressure from the Russian authorities, the entrepreneur sold his stake in VKontakte and emigrated from Russia. In the same interview, Durov mentioned that it was a difficult decision because he viewed the social network as "his child," but at the same time, "his mission was to become free and help others become free."

Founding Telegram and why the app faces criticism

Pavel Durov's next project was the messaging app Telegram. As with VKontakte, the entrepreneur created the new online platform with his brother. Nikolai wrote the programming code, while Pavel worked on the design and functionality.

The app quickly gained popularity, but once again came under the scrutiny of the Russian FSB and raised concerns in many other countries.

The controversy surrounding the messenger stems from its confidentiality. This was precisely Durov's aim: to prevent state intervention and regulation.

He mentioned that the idea for the platform emerged during searches by Russian security forces due to his refusal to remove opposition groups from VKontakte. Pavel realized there was no secure way to communicate, so developing a program with encrypted communication seemed like a good solution.

In 2018, Russian security services threatened to ban access to Telegram in the country if Durov did not hand over the encryption keys. The court even fined the platform's management 800,000 rubles for refusing to cooperate with the FSB. For a time, the messenger was blocked in Russia, but in 2020, Russians regained access to the app.

Photo: The Telegram app faces mixed reviews due to security concerns (facebook.com/durov)

Overall, Telegram has become a convenient platform for tracking news and communicating with users from around the world, but it is also considered potentially dangerous due to its anonymous channels, where propaganda, calls for violence, and illegal activities can spread.

The British news agency The Telegraph describes the platform's confidentiality as its "dark side," making it a "safe haven for criminals."

The Telegraph cites warnings from researchers that Telegram is a sprawling ecosystem of illegal and violent content linked to far-right conspiracy theories, extremism, terrorism, and child abuse.

The Telegraph reports that app usage surged in the UK following the murder of schoolgirls in Southport in July 2024, which led to street riots across the country. In 2019, after the London Bridge attack, the app gained wide popularity among ISIS factions. Following the Hamas attack on Israel, Telegram was repeatedly used by terrorists to disseminate their content.

Despite Pavel Durov's denials of any cooperation with Russian authorities, critics of the messenger believe its potential use by Russian security services is possible.

Telegram remains popular among Russian users, with Kremlin propagandists and pro-war bloggers maintaining channels on the platform.

Why Durov was arrested in France

On the evening of August 24, Pavel Durov was arrested in France. He was detained on the runway of Le Bourget Airport (near Paris) after arriving from Azerbaijan.

It is worth noting that the entrepreneur holds French citizenship and was listed as a wanted person. An arrest warrant for Pavel and his brother Nikolai was issued back in March 2024.

Durov is charged with 12 offenses, with the main allegation from French authorities being that Telegram does not moderate criminal content. Among the accusations by the French prosecutor are:

• Refusal to provide information necessary for lawful interception;
• Complicity in offenses and crimes organized on the platform, including drug trafficking, child pornography, fraud, and organized money laundering;
• Providing cryptographic services to ensure confidentiality without proper declaration.

In response to the arrest, the company issued a statement denying all accusations and emphasizing that the platform complies with all European legal requirements.

Pavel Durov was held in custody for 3 days and was transferred to court on August 28, where he was released for initial questioning and potential charges.

Durov's attitude towards Ukraine and the Russian invasion

Pavel Durov first commented on the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on March 7, 2022, calling the war a "tragic conflict both personally and for Telegram."

He revealed that he has Ukrainian roots, with his mother born in Kyiv. According to the entrepreneur, back in 2013, he could not betray Ukrainians when the FSB demanded data on Euromaidan activists.

Durov also stated that the messenger is safe for Ukrainian citizens. However, in April 2024, Telegram blocked the official chatbots of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) and GUR (Defense Intelligence), through which Ukrainians could report Russian occupiers. They were restored only a day later.

Photo: Pavel Durov (instagram.com/durov)

Interestingly, during his time at VKontakte, Durov was the first among non-native speakers to launch a Ukrainian interface for the site, aiming to "give millions of users from Ukraine the freedom to customize their experience." He spent several months testing the Ukrainian interface himself and learned a bit of the language.

Ascetic and father of 100 children

From social media and a few public statements, it is known that Pavel Durov leads an ascetic lifestyle, avoiding meat, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar.

A few years ago, he told his followers that he had abstained from food for a certain period, practicing extreme fasting to improve "mental clarity."

Pavel Durov has mastered eight languages, including Arabic, Ukrainian, German, and Spanish.

Recently, the entrepreneur revealed that he is the father of over 100 children in 12 countries due to anonymous sperm donation. Durov is considering opening his DNA code so that his biological children can find each other more easily.

Sources: materials from The Telegraph, Politico, Le Figaro, BFMTV, a Telegram post on Du Rove's Channel, Durov's statements in an interview with Tucker Carlson, and information from Wikipedia.

More details about Pavel Durov's arrest can be read in a separate article.

RBC-Ukraine also previously covered whether the Ukrainian authorities would block Telegram and what the arrest of Durov could change.