$TON Who is Pavel Durov?
Pavel Durov was born in Russia. In 2006, he founded Vkontakte, which is still one of the most popular social networks in Russia.
However, after the company's partnership structure changed, he left the company in 2014, saying that "the CEO's freedom of action in the management has significantly decreased."
After the sale of shares in early 2014, 52 percent of Vkontakte passed into the hands of the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who has ties to the Kremlin.
In 2013, he founded the encrypted messaging app Telegram with his brother Nikolai Durov.
He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to block Russian opposition groups on the social media platform.
Durov currently lives in Dubai. He holds dual citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram, which has servers in different parts of the world, is also headquartered in Dubai.
Telegram has become especially popular in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union countries.
The app was banned in Russia in 2018 after Durov refused to share user data with the Russian government. However, the ban was withdrawn in 2021.
Telegram is now one of the world's largest social media platforms, behind Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
According to the American business and economic magazine Forbes, Durov's fortune is around $15.5 billion.
Telegram's increasing popularity in Europe in recent years has led to investigations in many countries, including France, over security and data breach concerns.
Last May, it was announced that Telegram usage in the European Union was approaching a level at which it could be subject to stricter requirements under online content legislation.
