Pavel Durov: A Controversial Tech Tycoon and His Battle for Free Speech

Pavel Durov is a man of many identities: a programming genius, a billionaire entrepreneur, a controversial figure accused of aligning with the Kremlin, and a champion for free speech. Recently, Durov, the founder of Telegram, was detained in France, bringing renewed attention to his enigmatic persona. Often compared to tech figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk, Durov is known for his unconventional lifestyle and libertarian ideals. Like Musk, he has an obsession with pronatalism, having claimed in July that he has fathered over 100 children through sperm donations over the past 15 years.

With an estimated net worth of $9.15 billion according to Bloomberg, Durov holds multiple passports and maintains residences across various countries. He has spent the last decade as a global citizen, advocating for communication free from government surveillance. His recent legal troubles have reignited debates surrounding Telegram’s end-to-end encryption, which secures user communications even from the company’s employees, versus the security concerns of several governments and the European Union’s efforts to regulate big tech.

A Tale of Two Prodigies

Born in 1984 in the Soviet Union, Durov moved to Italy with his family at the age of four. They returned to Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed, as Durov’s father accepted a position at St. Petersburg State University. In a rare interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Durov shared that both he and his older brother, Nikolai, were mathematical prodigies from a young age. While Pavel excelled locally, Nikolai was a child star, appearing on Italian television to solve cubic equations and winning multiple gold medals at the International Math Olympiad.

“We were both very passionate about coding and designing stuff,” Durov recalled. Upon their return to Russia, the family brought back an IBM PC XT from Italy, which was rare in Russia during the early 1990s. This gave the brothers a unique opportunity to teach themselves programming.

Russia’s Answer to Zuckerberg

Durov’s programming skills and entrepreneurial spirit led him to create Vkontakte (VK) in 2006, a social media platform that quickly became known as the “Facebook of Russia.” Durov was often referred to as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg. However, his relationship with the Kremlin soured faster than Zuckerberg’s with Washington.

When VK was used by protesters to organize demonstrations in Kyiv against Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2013, the Kremlin demanded that VK hand over private data of Ukrainian users. Durov refused. “We decided to refuse, and that didn’t go too well with the Russian government,” he told Carlson. This decision marked the end of his tenure at VK. Durov resigned as CEO and eventually sold his shares for millions, leaving Russia behind. Today, VK is under state control.

“For me, it was never about becoming rich. Everything in my life was about becoming free. To the extent that is possible, my mission in life is to allow other people to become free,” Durov stated, adding, “I don’t want to take orders from anyone.”

A Messaging App for the Masses

Unlike Zuckerberg, who acquired WhatsApp to expand his social media empire, Durov decided to create his own messaging app despite a saturated market. He believed that existing messaging apps were inadequate. “It doesn’t matter how many messaging apps are out there if all of them suck,” Durov said in a 2015 interview with TechCrunch.

His experience with the Kremlin strongly influenced his decision to create Telegram, a messaging app based in Dubai. Durov and his brother aimed to build a platform that was beyond the reach of government surveillance. Telegram’s robust end-to-end encryption and commitment to privacy attracted hundreds of millions of users, including, controversially, the terrorists who orchestrated the Paris attacks in November 2015.

The use of Telegram by terrorists led Durov to engage in a public relations campaign, including an interview with CNN, to clarify that Telegram was not becoming a tool for terrorists. He argued that Telegram was simply the most secure messaging platform available and that compromising its encryption would undermine its appeal and the company’s commitment to privacy. “You cannot make it safe against criminals and open for governments,” Durov told CNN in 2016. “It’s either secure or not secure.”

Clashes with the Kremlin and Other Governments

Telegram’s refusal to provide decryption keys put it at odds with governments worldwide, including Russia. In 2018, Moscow attempted to ban Telegram after the company refused to comply with a demand to hand over decryption keys to Russian security services. Durov vowed to defy the ban, and another showdown with the Kremlin seemed imminent. However, the ban was lifted in 2020 without further conflict.

Since then, Telegram has become one of the few foreign social media platforms operating in Russia without significant restrictions. It is now the preferred communication tool for many Russian government officials. Critics have long speculated that Telegram’s unrestricted operation in Russia might indicate some sort of concession to the Kremlin, a claim Durov has consistently denied, often citing his earlier conflict with Russian authorities as evidence of his independence. Telegram reiterated in a statement to CNN that no deals were made with the Kremlin to lift the ban.

Before his detention in Paris, Durov was in Azerbaijan simultaneously with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was on an official visit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the two did not meet. Despite Durov’s public disavowal of Russia, the government swiftly acted to assist him after his detention. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the Russian Embassy in Paris “immediately got down to work” upon learning of Durov’s legal issues.

Ongoing Controversies

Western governments continue to be unsettled by Telegram’s use by money launderers, drug traffickers, and those spreading child exploitation content. Durov’s detention in France was related to a warrant concerning Telegram’s lack of content moderation, as reported by CNN-affiliate BFMTV. Telegram responded with a statement declaring, “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” The company emphasized that it complies with EU laws and that Durov has nothing to hide.