Pavel Durov
Pavel Valeryevich Durov (Russian: Павел Валерьевич Дуров; born 10 October 1984) is a Russian-born French and Emirati entrepreneur.
Pavel Durov is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of telegram messenger and the co-founder of social networking site vk.
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Pavel Durov
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Павел Дуров
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Pavel Durov in 2012
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| Born | 10 October 1984
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
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| Education | Saint Petersburg State University (BA) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 2006–present |
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| Parents |
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| Relatives | Nikolai Durov (brother) |
Durov was listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2023, with a net worth of $11.5 billion. His fortune is largely driven by his ownership of Telegram.
As of 25 August 2024, Durov was the 120th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $15.5 billion, according to Forbes.
In 2022, he was recognized by Forbes as the richest expat in the United Arab Emirates. In February 2023, Arabian Business named him the most powerful entrepreneur in Dubai.
In August 2024, Durov was arrested in France on numerous criminal charges which involved complicity to criminal offenses and the spread of criminal activity on Telegram through lack of moderators.
Early life and education
Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, but spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy, where his father was employed.
In 2006, he graduated from the Philology Department of the Saint Petersburg State University, where he received a first-class degree.
Career
VK
During his university years, Pavel Durov created the highly popular forum spbgu.ru. In 2006, he met his former classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili in Saint Petersburg.
Vyacheslav showed Durov the increasingly popular Facebook, after which the friends decided to create a new Russian social network.
Lev Binzumovich Leviev, an Israeli classmate of Vyacheslav Mirilashivili, became the third co-founder.
Pavel Durov at HighLoad++ conference in Moscow, 2010
Durov became chief executive officer (CEO) and attracted his older brother Nikolai, a multiple winner of international math and programming competitions, to develop the site.
Durov launched VKontakte for beta testing in September 2006. The following month, the domain name Vkontakte.ru was registered.
The new project was incorporated on 19 January 2007 as a Russian private limited company.
The user base reached 1 million in July 2007, and 10 million in April 2008. In December 2008 VK overtook rival Odnoklassniki as Russia’s most popular social networking service. The company grew to a value of $3 billion.
In 2011, he was involved in a standoff with the police in Saint Petersburg when the government demanded the removal of opposition politicians’ pages after the 2011 election to the Duma;
Durov posted a picture of a dog with its tongue out wearing a hoodie and the police left after an hour when he did not answer the door.
In 2012, Durov publicly posted a picture of himself extending his middle finger and calling it his official response to Mail.ru Group’s efforts to buy VK.
In December 2013, Durov decided to sell his 12% to Ivan Tavrin (at that time 40% of the shares belonged to Mail.ru Group, and 48% to the United Capital Partners). Later, Tavrin resold these shares to Mail.ru Group.
Dismissal from VK
On 1 April 2014, Durov submitted his resignation to the board; at first, due to the fact the company confirmed he had resigned, it was believed to be related to the Russo-Ukrainian War which had started in February.
However, Durov himself claimed it was an April Fool’s Joke on 3 April 2014.
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Pavel Durov at the TechCrunch conference in Berlin, 2013
On 16 April 2014, Durov publicly refused to hand over the personal data of Ukrainian protesters to Russia’s security agencies and to block Alexei Navalny’s page on VK.
Instead, he posted the relevant orders on his own VK page, claiming that the requests were unlawful.
On 21 April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO of VK. The company claimed it was acting on his letter of resignation a month earlier that he failed to recall.
Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin’s allies,
Suggesting his ouster was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VK group,
Dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement.
Durov then left Russia and stated that he had “no plans to go back” and that “the country is incompatible with internet business at the moment”.
Telegram
Upon leaving Russia, Pavel Durov obtained Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship by donating $250,000 to the country’s Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation and secured $300 million in cash within Swiss banks.
This allowed him to focus on creating his next company, Telegram, focused on an encrypted messaging service of the same name. Telegram was headquartered in Berlin and later moved to Dubai.
Pavel Durov and Mike Butcher at the TechCrunch conference in San Francisco, 2015
In January 2018, Durov announced that, in a bid to monetize the growing success of Telegram, he was launching the “Gram” cryptocurrency and the TON platform.
It raised a total of $1.7 billion from investors.
However, these ventures were halted by the American regulator U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which argued in court that Grams bypassed U.S. financing laws and should return the money to investors.
In 2018, Russia attempted to block Telegram, after the company refused to cooperate with Russian security services.
A leaked letter by a Federal Security Service employee stated that the block was actually tied to the company’s intention to launch the Telegram Open Network.
During the attempted block period, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to operate official channels on the app.
The block order was lifted in 2020, after two years of block attempts, which the service reportedly evaded using domain fronting.
The stated reason was Telegram agreeing to “counter terrorism and extremism” on the platform.
Legal issues
2024 arrest
Pavel Durov was arrested on August 24, 2024 by officers from France’s anti-fraud office, attached to French customs, at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, immediately after exiting his private jet.
Durov’s arrest was based on an arrest warrant issued by the French National Judicial Police as part of a preliminary investigation. Durov was handed numerous complicity charges.
Durov is accused of complicity as well as negligence involving his Telegram service, where serious crimes, including drug trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and fraud, occur frequently.
Durov’s arrest took place following his arrival in France from Azerbaijan. If Durov is convicted of the charges, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
It is said that Durov had previously avoided traveling to Europe due to potential legal risks.
Reports also indicate that Durov was on the list of individuals wanted by French authorities, and his arrest was due to his failure to cooperate with judicial officials, including issues related to Telegram’s activities.
According to French police, criminal activity on Telegram went unfettered through lack of moderators.
Views
Pavel Durov is a libertarian, teetotaler, and vegetarian. Durov claims to have an ascetic lifestyle, and promotes freedom from personal possessions.
For his twenty-seventh birthday in 2011, he donated a million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation.
In 2012, he published manifestos detailing his ideas on improving Russia.
Personal life
Pavel Durov’s grandfather Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov fought in World War II.
He served in the 65th Infantry Division of the Soviet Red Army, participated in battles on the Leningrad Front at Krasnoborsky and Gatchinsky, and was wounded three times, receiving the Order of the Red Star,
The Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree, and on the 40th Victory Day, the Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st degree.
Durov’s father Valery Semenovich Durov is a Doctor of Philological Sciences and the author of academic papers.
Since 1992, he has been head of the Department of classical philology of the philological faculty of Saint Petersburg State University.
In March 2022, Durov wrote that “On my Mom’s side, I trace my family line from Kyiv. Her maiden name is Ukrainian (Ivanenko), and to this day we have many relatives living in Ukraine.”
He is the younger brother of Nikolai Durov, who joined him in founding Telegram and served as lead developer, programmer, and architect of the project.
Durov is not married. He lives in Dubai.
Durov was naturalized as a French citizen in August 2021 and now has European Union citizenship. In April 2021, he received United Arab Emirates citizenship.
Since 2010 he has fathered over 100 children via sperm donation in 12 nations.
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Accolades
Pavel Durov has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia. In August 2014, Durov was named the most promising Northern European leader under 30.
In 2017, he was chosen to join the WEF Young Global Leaders, representing Finland.
On 21 June 2018, the Union of Kazakhstan’s Journalists bestowed an award on Durov “for his principled position against censorship and the state’s interference into citizens’ free online correspondence.”
In 2018, Fortune magazine included Durov in their “40 Under 40” list, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.
In February 2023, Durov was named the most powerful entrepreneur in Dubai by Arabian Business.
