Durov Pavel Valeryevich

Aktivs

As of April 2022, the main asset of Pavel Durov messenger Telegram^[1]

Biography

Born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984. His father is the famous philologist Valery Semenovich Durov, the author of many scientific works.

2006: Co-founder of the social network "VKontakte"

Pavel graduated from the Academic Gymnasium in 2001, and in 2006 - the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. In September of the same year, the social network Vkontakte"" started, in which Durov was a co-founder.

The social network VKontakte, a Russian clone of Facebook, grew out of a forum of students at St. Petersburg University. The forum was created by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai. VKontakte became publicly available at the very end of 2006, and already in the summer of 2007 a millionth user registered on it.

In 2007, the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper was recognized as one of the winners in the 2007 Best Young Entrepreneurs competition. According to some reports, Pavel is a member of the Mensa community, which unites people with a high IQ.

In 2008, he launched a new "shell" of the social network "VKontakte" - a Durov.ru that uses the User API, specially designed to create third-party social networks.

Pavel Durov is also known as the creator of other, less large student projects, in particular Durov.com - a site focused primarily on students of humanitarian specialties, and SPBGU.RU - a forum of students of St. Petersburg State University.

2010: DST increases stake in VKontakte

The DST fund (later turned into the Mail.ru Group) bought 24.99% of the project based on the company's estimate of $65.2 million. In the fall of 2010, the Mail.ru Group bought another 7.5% of the social network for $112.5 million: the site was already estimated at $1.5 billion. In terms of monthly audience (21.5 million - TNS, December 2010), VKontakte is second only to Yandex and Mail.ru, more than 110 million accounts are registered on the site.

2011

State of 7.9 billion rubles

According to 2011 data, Pavel Durov, who has a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, ranks 350th in the ranking of Russian billionaires.

Refusal to block groups in "Vkontakte" during protests against election results

In December 2011, in connection with protests against falsification of the results of elections to the State Duma, the FSB proposed that Durov block five communities (four of which contain the phrase "against United Russia" in the title) and two meetings on the VKontakte network. Durov refused to do so. After that, his summons were summoned to give explanations to the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg. Subsequently, Durov said that he did not block opposition groups solely from commercial interests, unwillingness to "give odds to all competing platforms" and lose customers.

2012: Throwing money out of the office window

On May 28, 2012, Pavel Durov threw 250 thousand rubles out of the window of the Vkontakte office in honor of St. Petersburg City Day.

Pavel Durov is a non-public person. Unlike Albert Popkov, the founder of the Odnoklassniki social network, Durov does not take part in any Russian IT conferences, such as RIFs, KIBs and the like. It's not on television.

He gave his first public interview at the specialized DLD conference in early 2012 in Munich. The full transcript of the interview can be read here.

Pavel Durov's speech at DLD in Munich with Russian subtitles

Due to Durov's stealth, many have previously concluded that such a person simply does not exist. Or, alternatively, it exists (as there are photos taken in different circumstances), but in fact is not the first person of the social network.

Paul's hometown in his profile in his own social network is Turin. However, his image is firmly tied to St. Petersburg - a city that is considered the "territory of VKontakte."

Pavel Durov was also seen on the Roem.Ru news website, where he periodically writes comments on articles related to the VKontakte network. He also has pages in Contact, on Google + and Facebook social networks, and his own blog in LiveJournal.

On September 20, 2012, the St. Petersburg police refused to initiate a criminal case on extremism at the request of the head of the Give Life Foundation, Svetlana Los. She accused the founder of the VKontakte social network of inciting hatred towards dogs, homeless people and football fans. The reason was the Twitter post.

2013: Emigration from Russia

Durov claimed that he left Russia after refusing to transfer data on Ukrainian users during the Maidan protests in 2013, which led to a coup d'etat organized by the United States and the overthrow of the legally elected President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

2017: FBI attempts to recruit Pavel Durov

Reports of attempts FBI to establish cooperation with the founder Telegram and social network "" Vkontakte appeared in the spring of 2017. Durov shared in an interview with the American magazine The Baffler details of these attempts^[2]

According to him, the first attempts by the FBI to force cooperation took place back in 2014. Durov then sold his stake in VKontakte and emigrated from the Russia demands FSB to provide personal information of the organizers of Euromaidan. When crossing the American border, Durova immediately began to interrogate the FBI. Then everything was limited to a few questions about his cooperation with the Russian authorities.

Later, Durov was offered to give an email address to which representatives of the special services could send letters with proposals for cooperation regarding the Telegram messenger. According to Durov, he ignored these proposals.

During a visit to the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, FBI agents again tried to establish contact with Durov. He was shown a court order and offered to create an informal communication channel through which information about terrorists could be exchanged. Durov again refused and suggested in an interview that the court order was most likely fake.

A year later, they tried to recruit one of the Telegram developers in this way. First, employees of the FBI cyber unit interrogated the developer, and then offered him about $10 thousand for cooperation. The developer refused the offer and informed Durov about what had happened.

The founder of Telegram also noted the extremely high level of training and the seriousness of the intentions of the American special services.

2018

Forbes magazine published^[3] 2018 in March^[4], a ranking of billionaires in the world, which included 102 Russian businessmen^[5]. Pavel Durov, who first became a participant in the rating, takes 1394th place in it.

2021

Fortune - $17.2 billion

On April 6, 2021, Forbes magazine published an annual ranking of the richest people on the planet. Pavel Durov's fortune was estimated at $17.2 billion, he took eighth place in the ranking. Read more here.

UAE Gold Visa

In 2021, Pavel Durov was often seen in cafes, restaurants in the UAE. He moved to Dubai back in 2017. "I like it here   ," he said in an interview with Bloomberg, attributing his choice to the lack of taxes in Dubai Media City's free economic zone.

He is the holder of the "Golden Visa" of the United Arab Emirates. At this time, this is rare for Russians: the document gives the right to permanent residence in the UAE for investors and outstanding workers in the field of health, technology, science and art. It is given for 10 years and then extended for life. A "golden visa" can be issued to a foreigner by any UAE emirate, but, nevertheless, it is valid on the territory of all emirates.

Obtaining French citizenship

In November 2021, it became known about the receipt of French citizenship by Pavel Durov. His name appears in the decree of August 23, 2021 on naturalization and reintegration.

This document, published in the official journal of the French Republic, is referred to by Kommersant. The list of people who received French citizenship lists "Durov Pavel, born 10.10.1984 in Leningrad," in accordance with the decree of the country's Prime Minister Jean Castex.

TASS also draws attention to the fact that citizenship was awarded by naturalization. According to French law, the applicant must have lived in France for at least five years, have a valid residence permit in his hands and be in France at the time of filing the application. This period is reduced to two years if a person has studied at a French educational institution for at least two years and received an appropriate diploma, or can "provide France with important services due to his abilities and talents." The requirement for a minimum period of residence in the country is completely removed only for immigrants from francophone countries, as well as for refugees serving in the French armed forces or those who "provided outstanding services to France."

Pavel Durov himself by November 23, 2021 refrains from commenting on the possession of another foreign citizenship. The founder of VKontakte is also a subject of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a state in the eastern Caribbean. There were also rumors about the British citizenship of the entrepreneur, but he himself rejected this information.

In 2021, Pavel Durov entered the top ten richest Russian businessmen. At the same time, in the ranking on the international website Forbes , Durov is assigned to where he UAE lives, although Russian citizenship is indicated. The businessman's fortune, according to the publication, increased by $13.8 billion over the year and amounted to $17.2 billion.^[6][7][8]

State growth by $13.81 billion, to $17.24 billion

In 2021, the total fortune of the richest Russians increased by $101.39 billion. The strongest in 2021 was Pavel Durov - $13.81 billion. As a result, his fortune reached $17.24 billion thanks to the success of the Telegram messenger. In March 2021, the service first placed its own bonds and raised $1 billion on the market. The messenger has dramatically increased its user base after the outage of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in October 2021. Telegram has registered 70 million new users. Read more here.

2022

Third place in the ranking of the richest Russians ($15.1 billion)

In April 2022, Forbes magazine published a rating of the richest Russians. Pavel Durov took third place in it with a fortune of $15.1 billion^[1].

Obtaining UAE citizenship

Telegram founder Pavel Durov received UAE citizenship. Now the businessman has four citizenship - in addition to the Emirates, these are Russia, France and the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Forbes learned.

Durov announced his move to Dubai in 2017, he then explained this decision by the lack of taxes in the free economic zone.

2023: Renting a villa in Dubai for $1m a year

On August 14, 2023, a new place of residence of Pavel Durov became known. The founder of Telegram rented a villa worth approximately $1 million a year in one of Dubai's most luxurious areas.

According to Forbes, Durov, who is a citizen of France, the United Arab Emirates, as well as St. Kitts and Nevis, settled in the Jumeirah Islands complex. It is a housing estate designed by Nakheel Properties - a Dubai-based development company. The complex consists of several interconnected islands erected on the basis of an artificial lake with salt water. Each island contains 16 villas, made in a different style.

Durov rented a five-bedroom villa with a total area of ​ ​ approximately 1,400 square meters. According to reports, the founder of Telegram gives about $83 thousand a month for living in a new place - this makes the villa one of the most expensive to rent in the Jumeirah Islands complex. On the territory there is a garden and its own pool.

It is noted that the Jumeirah Islands complex, built in the early 2000s, has its own private club with two restaurants, a supermarket, a gym, beauty salons, a pharmacy, an entertainment center and other necessary infrastructure. According to reports, the deal between the founder of Telegram and the landlord was brokered by Dubai-based Luxury Property LLC. Durov himself does not comment on the information about moving to a villa on the territory of Jumeirah Islands.

It is also noted that after moving to Dubai in 2017, Durov lived in different areas of the city next to the main office of Telegram in the free economic zone of Dubai Media City. According to Forbes, as of August 15, 2023, Durov's fortune is estimated at approximately $11.5 billion.^[9]

2024

Arrest in Paris over refusal to play by US and its satellites rules

In August 2024, Pavel Durov was arrested at the Paris airport. He faces 20 years in prison and will face trial as a French citizen.

The warrant was issued due to the fact that Durov "did not cooperate with the French security forces, which makes him an accomplice in drug trafficking and other serious crimes."

France could use Durov's trial to impose EU sanctions on Telegram.

Pavel Durov is a citizen of France, so extradition to Russia or exchange is impossible, French media reported.

Durov's arrest is in line with the principles of the EU Digital Services Act, a media source in Brussels legal circles said.

The document states that the operator of a social network or Internet platform is responsible for any content that is posted on it.

The UAE requires France to provide its citizen Pavel Durov with urgent access to all the necessary consular services - the UAE Foreign Ministry.

Durov is also under investigation for "serious acts of violence" against his child in France: a source close to the case.

The real reason for the arrest is that Durov did not play according to US rules, pursuing an independent policy, losing billions and possibly also freedom. For more information on pressure on the company, see Telegram.

In the charges brought against Durov, a significant emphasis is placed on an attempt to bypass the financing mechanisms controlled by the collective West and this is a very important nuance.

After the SEC decision in early 2020, institutional investors in the United States and Europe turned away from Telegram, and the main demand for bonds was received from Middle Eastern investors.

Durov wanted to develop crypto projects, but the first attempt was forcibly frozen by an agreement with the SEC, and the second attempt began in 2024.

After three years of calm, Durov made a second attempt.

There were many events, but Spydell Finance highlighted four main concepts:

• Durov planned to make Toncoin the main cryptocurrency integrated into Telegram. This would allow users to transact, pay for premium features and support content creators directly in the app.

• One of the key projects was the development of a Toncoin-based payment system that would allow users to make instant transfers and payments. This would include not only internal transactions, but also support for external payments, which could make Telegram a full-fledged financial platform.

• An important initiative was the creation of a platform for decentralized applications (DApps) based on TON. This would allow developers to create and distribute applications within Telegram using decentralized infrastructure, which would increase security and independence from centralized servers.

• Durov also planned to introduce TON-based NFT support. The platform for creating, selling and exchanging non-interchangeable tokens was supposed to become an important part of Telegram, allowing users to create and trade digital assets directly inside the messenger.

From March to June, the 2024 of the TON crypt grew almost 4 times from 2 to $ 8 (now 5.2).

TON could become the only cryptocurrency secured by real cash flows among a huge social base with the potential to generate hundreds of billions of dollars of turnover per year (real transactions in the ecosystem, not trade turnover).

Durov wanted to create his own financial system, isolated and independent of the fiat currency and the rules for the functioning of the global financial system.

Anonymous nature of Telegram + deep integration of Toncoin (built-in crypto wallet, end-to-end payments and settlements) + decentralized applications in the TON ecosystem + distributed architecture of a related ecosystem = a new financial and social world that is not controlled by the collective West and is not controlled by anyone among official structures.

For this, there were all the prerequisites and resources - almost 1 billion users and a developed digital infrastructure. Durov could become the most influential non-systemic person in the world.

End-to-end implementation of the crypto wallet through the @ wallet bot began in 2024, although integration was in April 2022. Plus, the expansion of channel monetization using crypto assets.

Apparently, an attempt to build an independent financial system (through crypto assets) acted as the final trigger for the "defeat of Telegram."

Pavel Durov is the brain of Telegram, providing promotion, financing and strategic development of the platform, while Nikolai Durov is purely technical aspects and programming of the system core.

"It's amazing how the answer returns": Ilya Sachkov, co-founder of Group-IB, convicted of treason, on Durov's detention

Convicted of treason, co-founder of Group-IB (later - F.A.C.C.T.) Ilya Sachkov commented on the arrest of Pavel Durov, who was detained at the Paris airport. Sachkov wished the founder of Telegram "speedy freedom."

After Sachkov's arrest in 2021, Durov said that "it is better to avoid arrests." At the same time, the creator of Telegram wondered, "what is the point of spending time in prisons?" These words were remembered by Sachkov, who published a statement in connection with the arrest of Durov.

Pavel Durov

It is striking how and under what circumstances this answer to Paul himself is returned three years later. Personally, I did not understand his message then. Yes, I stayed in Russia despite all the risks, while realizing that I did not commit any crimes. In about a similar situation, Pavel just left Russia. And, as we can see, this did not really help, - wrote the co-founder of Group-IB.

In general, Sachkov calls Durov's arrest "an absolutely inadequate and unfair attitude towards talented engineers." The investigation of the founder of Telegram is carried out by the Center for Combating Digital Crime and the National Office for Combating Fraud in France. In the case, according to the Kommersant newspaper, there are charges on 12 counts, including:

• Complicity in the web mastering of an online platform in order to carry out an illegal transaction in an organized group.
• Refusal to transmit information or documents to the competent authorities upon request;
• Complicity in the possession of pornographic images of minors;
• Complicity in the distribution of pornographic images of minors as part of an organized group;
• Complicity in the acquisition, transportation, storage, sale of narcotic substances;
• Complicity in the sale or illegal transfer of equipment, tools, programs or data designed or adapted to gain access to data processing systems;
• Complicity in organized fraud;
• Establishing a criminal community to commit a crime or offense;
• Laundering of proceeds derived from offenses or crimes as part of an organized group;
• Provide cryptographic services to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration.^[10]

Family

Brother - Durov Nikolai Valerievich

Outlook

• Pavel Durov is a vegetarian.

• Pavel Durov adheres to libertarian economic and political views. Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on a ban on "aggressive violence," that is, a ban on the use of force or the threat of force against another person, or his property, against the will of that person. The ban on violent violence is legal, not ethical. In other words, libertarianism implies that violations of a given prohibition should be prosecuted.

• For more than 10 years - since I was a very poor student - I do not get tired of repeating: money is overvalued, because creation is much more interesting than consumption, and the inner state is incommensurably more important than the outer. Once you make a cult out of money and exchange "being" for "appearing," you send yourself into voluntary slavery. Debts due to status tinsel, boring work with dull cowards, the need to lie and betray your world are just a part of the price that you will pay for excessive desire for paper^[11].

5 claims of Pavel Durov to the Russian school

One of the creators of the VKontakte social network and the founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, often (and rightly) criticizes modern Russian education. In the publication "Mel" collected in the summer of 2017 in the main theses of the Russian entrepreneur about what the school of the XXI century should teach^{[12] [13]}

• Given the current economic uncertainty and rapid changes, education officials simply cannot know what skills and knowledge will be in demand in 5 or 10 years. Their activities to standardize school curricula are a dangerous roulette game, in which the future of an entire nation is placed on one arbitrary number. It is necessary to de-standardize the education system. The current schools were conceived in the industrial era and resemble factories, on the conveyors of which formulaic views are instilled. Specialists of the XXI century can be trained only in non-standard educational institutions.
• Official curricula today show a gap from reality. The average graduate of a modern Russian school practically does not speak either Russian or English. Meanwhile, all an effective member of the information society needs is mastery of these two languages, as well as arithmetic skills. If the system does not cope even with this basic task, it makes no sense to discuss its successes in disseminating knowledge about the shoe infusion.
• Many schools of the future will become experimental sites like technology startups. The result of the work of some of these schools will be a deafening success, others will end their history with a colossal failure. The number of unknowns is enormous, and the path to the future lies only through experiment. One thing is for sure - secondary education in the 21st century will become more diverse and interesting.
• The education system in Russia should be flexible, provide for training in non-standard programs. The main property of the state in the XXI century is free people and their work. One of the most important skills in our mobile-online era, which is less and less common, is the ability to concentrate for many hours in one lesson. But it is this skill that is necessary for an intellectual, creative or spiritual breakthrough. The future lies with those who will develop immunity to the technological traps of attention and retain the ability to long-term concentration.
• One day I started to see some people fail, not because they can't count - but because they can't understand why it happened. They knew how to find excuses, but they did not understand.

Charity work

• In March 2012, it became known that the Wikimedia Foundation accepted Pavel Durov's donation, said Vladislav Tsyplukhin, head of the resource's press service. Durov promised to donate $1 million to the development of Wikipedia in a live conference with the participation of the leadership of the encyclopedia in January 2012. He explained his desire to support the encyclopedia financially by the fact that the Wikipedia project is very important for the Internet and is a global phenomenon. According to Tsyplukhin, the money has already been transferred and should be received by Wikimedia in the near future.

• July 16, 2012 Pavel Durov presented $50 thousand to the world's best programmers. They turned out to be schoolchildren from China. The first and second places of the Open World Programming Championship VK Cup, initiated by the head of VKontakte Pavel Durov, were taken by schoolchildren from China. They received $30 thousand and $20 thousand, respectively. The third place went to a student from Belarus, he received $10 thousand.

Awards

• Laureate of scholarships of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation, three-time laureate of a scholarship of Vladimir Potanin, winner of Olympiads in linguistics, computer science and design.

• In 2007, the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper was recognized as one of the winners in the 2007 Best Young Entrepreneurs competition.

• In 2011, Pavel Durov, as well as Arkady Volozh, General Director of Yandex, and Yuri Milner, co-owner of Mail.ru Group and DST Global, became the leaders TOP-30 key individuals who most influenced the development of Runet according to the Russian version of Forbes magazine.

Books about Pavel Durov

In November 2012, the Durov Code, a book by writer and journalist Nikolai Kononov, went on sale, in which he will tell previously unknown details about how 28-year-old Pavel Durov became one of the most successful Russian businessmen in just a few years.

"He is an eternal opposing, contrarian, 100% selfish and loner. Hereditary philologist from a good family. He has very gifted parents, a brilliant older brother who works as the technical director of VKontakte and makes sure that this whole wildly loaded system does not fall. All methods and ways to store information and distribute it were invented by his brother, this is absolute know-how. Developer conferences, where they tell how they store information, gather fans, like concerts of stadium groups, "says the author of the book in an^[14]

According to Nikolai Kononov, he began writing a book about Pavel Durov while working for Forbes. The journalist found the writer's St. Petersburg acquaintances and began to collect biographical data about him, and then he took some time to persuade Durov to provide information about himself. The decisive argument in his favor as a biographer was not only the recommendations of common acquaintances, but also the fact that he assured Paul: he is interested not so much in his condition as in the way as an entrepreneur.

In his book, Nikolai Kononov promises to dispel myths about mafia sources of financing for VKontakte, to talk in detail about the role in creating the social network of Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and his older brother Pavel Durov, who always remains in his shadow. The book will also have many other interesting episodes: for example, a story about Pavel Durov's meeting with Mark Zuckerberg in Silicon Valley, episodes from his childhood in Italy and more. Nikolai Kononov also announced negotiations with a number of producers who showed interest in filming a film based on the book.

Links

Profile of Pavel Durov in Contact

Profile of Pavel Durov on the Google + network

Pavel Durov's Facebook profile

Blog Pavel Durov in LJ

Philology Students Site durov.com

First video interview with Pavel Durov at DLD Conference 2012

Notes