IRussian-born tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov founded wildly popular social media and a cryptocurrency, amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune and clashed with authorities around Russia and the world.
Just months shy of his 40th birthday, the man once dubbed the “Russian Zuckerberg” after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is now under arrest in France after being detained at a Paris airport this weekend.
The St. Petersburg native rose to fame in Russia when he was 20 after founding the social network VKontakte (VK), which catered to the needs of Russian-speaking users and overtook Facebook across the former USSR.
After disputes with Russian authorities and ownership battles, he sold VKontakte and founded a new messaging service called Telegram, which quickly gained traction but proved controversial, with critics condemning an alleged lack of control over extreme content.
As these dramas unfolded, Durov remained a mercurial and sometimes mysterious figure, rarely giving interviews and limiting himself to sometimes enigmatic statements on Telegram.
Durov, an avowed libertarian, has advocated privacy on the Internet and encryption for messaging.
It has steadfastly refused to allow message moderation on Telegram, which allows users to post videos, images and comments in “channels” that can be followed by anyone.
Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant in France for crimes allegedly committed on Telegram, ranging from fraud to drug trafficking, cyberstalking and organized crime, including promoting terrorism and fraud.
The investigations have been entrusted to the cyber unit of the French gendarmerie and to the national anti-fraud office. According to two sources close to the case, he was still in police custody on Sunday. He has not been charged with any crime.
In 2006, after graduating from St. Petersburg University, Durov launched VK, attracting users even as its founder remained an obscure figure.
In a gesture typical of his unpredictable behaviour, in 2012 Durov threw high-denomination banknotes at pedestrians from the VK headquarters located on the roof of a historic bookstore on St Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt.
During the anti-Putin protests that shook Russia in early 2012, he also emerged as a hero of the liberal opposition by refusing to shut down groups on the site dedicated to organizing protest marches.
But after running into trouble with the Kremlin for refusing to hand over users’ personal data to the Russian security services (FSB), he sold his stake in the company and left Russia in 2014.
Durov quit VK in his usual formal style, posting a photo of dolphins and the caption “So long and thanks for all the fish,” a title from the sci-fi series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
He developed Telegram with his brother Nikolai while traveling from country to country and launched the service in 2013.
She settled in Dubai and obtained citizenship of the Caribbean archipelago of Saint Kitts and Nevis, then, in August 2021, obtained French nationality after a discreet procedure over which Paris maintains great discretion.
Meanwhile, Telegram was enjoying stratospheric success, presenting itself as a defender of individual liberties, rejecting “censorship” and protecting the confidentiality of its users.
The combination of usability and privacy made the app popular among pro-democracy protesters around the world, from Hong Kong and Iran to Belarus and Russia.
This angered the authorities, especially in his home country, and in 2018 a Moscow court ordered the service to be blocked. But the enforcement of the measure was chaotic and three days later protesters bombarded the FSB headquarters with paper planes, the symbol of Telegram.
Russia has since abandoned its efforts to block Telegram and the messaging service is used by the Russian government and the opposition, with some channels boasting several hundred thousand subscribers.
Telegram also plays a key role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, documented by bloggers on both sides posting their analysis and videos of the fighting.
Pro-Moscow channels run by pro-war “Z-bloggers” have proven hugely influential and are sometimes critical of Russian military strategy.
Durov avoids interviews in mainstream media, but in April he sat down with ultra-conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson for a lengthy conversation.
“People love independence. They also love privacy, freedom. There are many reasons why someone would switch to Telegram,” Durov told Carlson.
Durov also has no qualms about posting messages on his own Telegram channel, in which he claims to lead a solitary life, abstaining from meat, alcohol and even coffee. Always dressed in black, he bears a resemblance to actor Keanu Reeves in the film The Matrix.
In July, he boasted that he was the biological father of more than 100 children thanks to his sperm donations in a dozen countries, describing it as a “civic duty” in an attitude toward parenting that echoes that of fellow tech mogul X and Tesla boss Elon Musk.
According to Forbes magazine’s latest estimate, Durov’s fortune is worth $15.5bn (£11.7bn). But the value of toncoin, the cryptocurrency he created, has plummeted by more than 15% since his arrest was announced.
Telegram has long been in the crosshairs of European judicial authorities over accusations that it spreads conspiracy theories and calls for murder. However, Durov insists that it responds to all requests to remove content that incites violence or murder.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report