2024-08-25 23:34:33
For the Russian government, he is an enemy of the state. Others call him the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia. Who is Pavel Durov really? A portrait.
When special forces stood at his door and he watched them on a monitor, he realized that his future did not lie in the Russian state. This is the most famous story about Telegram founder Pavel Durov. He told it to a New York Times journalist in London in 2014.
Only Durow himself knows whether there is any truth to the story. One thing is certain: it fits the self-created image of a wanted renegade. On his Instagram account, he presents himself as a well-trained nature lover between snow-capped mountains, Hindu deities and the desert.
In one of Durow’s Instagram posts, Mel Gibson can be seen in his role as freedom fighter William Wallace in the Hollywood film Braveheart. Next to it is the Telegram logo. Durow writes: “They can take our IPs, but they will never take our freedom.” Based on Wallace’s exclamation in the film: “They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!”
Unlike Wallace, who turned against the Scottish ruler Edward Longshanks, Durow means the Russian government by “they”. According to Durow, Russia blocked over 15 million IP addresses in 2018 to make it more difficult for Telegram users to use the messenger. The story is indicative of the relationship between Durow and the Kremlin.
To understand Durov’s resentment against the Putin regime, you have to look at the life of the 38-year-old. Born in Leningrad, Durov spent his youth in Italy, where his father worked. After studying linguistics in St. Petersburg, he founded the social network VKontakte, now called Vk, with his brother Nikolai in 2006. With millions of users, the social network is considered the Russian Facebook.
For many years, Durov believed that Russia was liberal towards new technologies. But in 2011, he was proven wrong. After the controversial parliamentary elections that year, the Russian government demanded that Durov delete the pages of opposition politicians on VKontakte.
When he refused, the special forces mentioned by Durow showed up at his door a short time later. When he then tried to call his brother, he realized that he had no way of contacting him via a secure connection.
Durov first attracted worldwide attention when he offered US whistleblower Edward Snowden a job at VKontakte in 2013. In the same year, Russia tightened control over the Internet in the country.
Together with his brother, he developed the messenger Telegram with an encryption concept. Durwo sold his shares in VKontakte to an ally of President Putin and his investment company. The exact purchase price is still unknown. There was talk of several hundred million US dollars. Durow left Russia.
The founding of Telegram came at a good time for the founders. At the beginning of 2014, Facebook bought the popular messenger WhatsApp for 19 billion US dollars. Since not all users agreed with the takeover by the US company and did not want to share their data with the company, they looked for alternatives to the messenger.
On some days in February 2014, millions of new users signed up to Telegram. Durow and his staff announced at the time that 100 new members were joining every second. Another advantage over WhatsApp at the time was Telegram’s end-to-end encryption. Facebook only introduced such a security measure to WhatsApp later.
Since leaving Russia, Durov has moved Telegram several times. The messenger has been based in Berlin, London and Singapore. The company currently lists Dubai as its headquarters. Regardless, the messenger gains millions of new users every year, who send billions of messages per day.
Due to its secure communication and its invulnerability to authorities, the messenger became a popular application for criminals. According to the Internet analysis company Flashpoint, the service was an important means of communication for the terrorist militia Islamic State after the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.