Founded in 2006 by Pavel Dourov, who is also the creator of the encrypted messaging service Telegram, Vkontakte has long been the target of the Kremlin. The case dates back to the creation of the platform, when the social network was already struggling to maintain its independence from the Moscow authorities.
In December 2013, government pressure intensified when the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) demanded the young founder to hand over the personal data of the Euromaidan group, who had organized the pro-European protest in Ukraine on the web.
In 2014, the founder of Vkontakte he was forced to resign of its board of directors after publishing a copy of the court orders of the FSB and the list of names requested by the secret service.
“Transmitting this data would have been against the law, a betrayal of the millions of Ukrainians they have trusted us, “Pavel Dourov wrote then. These words forced him to leave the country. Since then, he divides his time between London, Dubai and Paris. In fact, he obtained French nationality last August.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo EFE
Power
Vkontakte claims to have over 100 million users and be the largest social network in Russia. In recent years, the fast-growing social network has attracted the interest of private investors. But that’s not counting Moscow’s desire to put the platform directly under its control.
By October 2016, the company marked 10 years since its appearance in 2006, incorporating new features such as VK Live and VK Stories. By January 2017, VK had an average of 400 million registered users and more than 90 million users active, reaching position number 15 in the Alexa Top 500 Global Sites. By April 10, 2021, Vk had 649 million users.
Through Gazprom and its subsidiaries, such as SoGaz, owned by an old friend of the Russian president, and Gazprom Media, the media arm of the parent company, the Kremlin thus obtained more than 50% of the voting rights on the advice of the Russian social network.
Gazprom is a gas company founded in 1989 during the Soviet period and currently controlled by the Russian state, although its economic and business management is that of a private company. It has 456,000 employees (2017 according to forbes) and annual sales of more than 164,000 million dollars.
Control
A Gazprom plant in Germany. Photo Bloomberg
A transaction with little economic value. Opponents of Vladimir Putin consider that this operation makes Vkontakte a state company. However, the deal has little economic value, as the two Gazprom companies will receive less than 5% of future profits.
This digital arsenal of influence with Gazprom-Media It already consists of 38 television stations and ten radio stations. With the VK Group, the Kremlin now has several social networks, such as VKontakte, Mail.ru messaging, as well as video game platforms and online payment services.
While the opposition denounces an attempt to control the political debate and repressing criticism of the regime in the press and on the web, the Russian authorities are putting the finishing touches on another great project: that of an Internet network completely independent from the rest of the world and capable of operating autonomously.
RFI
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