[Foreign media: Telegram founder Pavel Durov visited Russia many times between 2015 and 2021] Golden Finance reported that the Russian independent news agency "Important Stories" reported that Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov entered Russia more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021. The report cited data leaked by Russia's main intelligence agency, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), about Durov's whereabouts. The data was reportedly leaked around August 20 and hidden again on August 26. Important Stories said it partially verified the data by talking to investigators under Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Durov reportedly did not try to conceal his travels. He took commercial flights of Russian airlines to and from St. Petersburg, Russia and various cities in Europe, and also took Russian Railways trains from Russia to Helsinki, Finland. Pavel Durov is from Russia and co-founded the Russian social network VKontakte in 2006. In 2014, Durov refused to comply with the FSB's request to disclose the personal data of Ukrainian protesters, and subsequently resigned as CEO and sold his 12% stake to Ivan Tavrin, CEO of the telecommunications company MegaFon. Durov left Russia in April 2014, and his only public visit to Russia was in the fall of 2014, when he returned for a few days to sell his data center ICVA Ltd. Durov traveled to Russia several times between 2015 and 2017 and between 2020 and 2021, and the only period without traveling to Russia was between 2018 and 2020. In an interview with Tucker Carlson in April, Durov claimed that he would not go to places that did not conform to Telegram's values, including Russia. Durov was arrested in France on August 24. He was accused of failing to adequately regulate illegal activity on the communication platform, which French authorities claim is used for drug trafficking, fraud, and organized crime.