Pavel Durov has made a significant impact on the tech world, particularly with his focus on privacy and innovation.
Known for co-founding VKontakte and later Telegram, Durov has built a reputation as a staunch advocate for user confidentiality and free speech.
His journey from creating Russia’s largest social network to leading one of the most popular messaging apps globally has also not been without controversy.
In this article, we’re diving deep into the biography of a controversial figure. A man who has allegedly fathered over 100 children through sperm donation across 120 countries and gave Russian authorities the middle finger (literally).
Let’s dive in.
Who Is Pavel Durov?
Pavel Valeryevich Durov is a Russian entrepreneur known for co-founding the messaging app Telegram with his brother Nikolai. He’s been the company’s CEO since 2013. However, this wasn’t the first social media project the duo had worked on.
Pavel and Nikolai became popular in Russia after launching VK (VKontakte) in 2006, a social media network similar to Facebook, which earned Pavel the nickname “The Russian Zuckerberg.”
Telegram’s success has earned the brothers significant wealth. While Nikolai is a more low-key, under-the-radar type of guy, Pavel is more outgoing and the face of the company (Nikolai is actually the one who designed both Telegram and The Open Network).
Pavel’s net worth is estimated at around $15B in 2024, making him the 120th richest person in the world.
Where is Pavel Durov From?
Durov was born on October 10, 1984, in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Russia. Yet he spent a good chunk of his childhood in Turin, Italy, before returning to Russia, where he graduated with honors in 2006 from the Philology Department of Saint Petersburg’s State University.
He’s also an official citizen of several countries besides Russia and Italy: Saint Kitts and Nevis, France, and the UAE (in 2022, Forbes recognized Durov as the wealthiest expat in the region, and Arabian Business named him the most powerful entrepreneur in Dubai in 2023).
We have a detailed thread on X on the matter, feel free to check it out here:
Pavel Durov’s recent arrest sparked global debates on freedom of speech involving the likes of Elon Musk, government leaders, and millions of people.
Here’s the scoop on the tech whale who managed to father over a 100 children and flip Putin off, while making billions
— CryptoPotato Official (@Crypto_Potato) September 8, 2024
The Origins of Telegram
In 2013, Durov co-founded Telegram, an encrypted messaging app known for its emphasis on privacy and security. Telegram has gained millions of users globally and has become a significant player in the tech industry. Originally headquartered in Berlin, the company later moved to Dubai.
In his statements and opinions, Durov has always emphasized the importance of privacy, seeing Telegram as a tool for secure and free communication.
The app has undoubtedly been a success, but it came with a price in the form of regulatory pushback from numerous governments across the world.
Durov has faced many challenges, including Russia’s attempts to block Telegram and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intervention in his plans for the Gram cryptocurrency and the development of The Open Network (TON), of which Telegram carried out the original design and implementation.
Durov was already a rebel, but things started to heat up in 2011 after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin demanded the de-platforming of opposition on VK. In response, Durov gave Russian authorities the middle finger, quite literally:
In 2014, friction escalated. The Russian government demanded Durov to hand over user data, — particularly from Ukrainian protesters against pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych to Russia’s Federal Security Service — and resisted government censorship of VK, prompting Durov to leave Russia and stay in other countries.
That same year, Durov also sold his 12% stake in VK, when the company had a valuation of around $3-4 billion, according to Russian media.
However, his exit from VK at the time caused a lot of controversy, as he was ousted from the CEO position by the company shareholders without prior knowledge, according to The Moscow Times.
Durov responded that shareholders didn’t dare to do it directly and that the move had placed VK under the “full control” of Igor Sechin, a Kremlin-linked Rosneft CEO, and Alisher Usmanov, a VK billionaire shareholder. An excerpt from Wikipedia reads:
“Durov then said 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.”
Family, Children, and Some Controversies
Both Pavel and Nikolai were raised in an environment deeply rooted in academic excellence, largely shaped by their father, Valery Semenovich Durov.
Valery is a distinguished philologist with a Doctorate in Philological Sciences and has led the Philology Department at Saint Petersburg State University since 1992. His contributions to linguistics through various publications have earned him recognition as a prominent scholar in his field.
Growing up in such an intellectually stimulating household, Pavel and Nikolai were exposed to a world of academic rigor and intellectual curiosity from an early age. Their mother, Albina Durova, was also a professor at the same university, reinforcing the family’s strong educational values. This background helped nurture their individual talents in technology and mathematics (a field in which Nikolai excells), which would later propel them to create VKontakte and Telegram.
Children
According to Forbes, Pavel Durov has two children with his ex-wife, Daria Bondarenko: a daughter, Alina (born 2009), and a son, Mikhail (born 2010). Durov met Daria while studying at university, and as of 2021, she was living in Barcelona. In that same year, Forbes ranked Durov’s children as the sixth wealthiest heirs in Russia.
In July 2024, Irina Bolgar, who lives in Switzerland, contacted Forbes, presenting documentation to confirm that she has three children with Durov. Bolgar also provided a family photo with Durov taken in 2020. Forbes verified the authenticity of these documents. In August 2024, Bolgar filed a lawsuit against Durov in Switzerland, accusing him of abusing their youngest son between 2021 and 2022. She also claimed that Durov stopped seeing their children in September 2022. I
Shortly after Durov’s arrest, French prosecutors started a probe into the alleged facts of physical violence against his child, according to CNN.
Father of Over 100 Children
If you think Elon Musk is the only tech billionaire who’s trying singlehandedly to stop declining birthrates, think again. Durov has made public statements claiming he has fathered more than 100 children through sperm donation across 12 countries since 2010.
2024 Arrest in France: A Closeup
After Durov left Russia in 2014, he focused on Telegram, turning the app into a pro-privacy tool for millions of users worldwide. Years passed, and everything seemed fine—Telegram was becoming a major messaging app praised for its file-sharing capabilities, security, and privacy mechanisms.
By 2024, Telegram had made headlines after reaching 950M users worldwide. But it was probably the encryption policy that got Durov into trouble in the first place. In today’s technological era, encryption is essential for securing your sensitive data.
Two main methods are server-side encryption (SSE) and client-side encryption (CSE), each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Server-Side Encryption (SSE)
In server-side encryption, like the one used by WhatsApp, the server encrypts your data after it is received and stores it in an encrypted format. The server manages the encryption keys, which can simplify things for you but requires you to trust the service provider.
SSE typically runs faster because the server uses its processing power for encryption and decryption. It’s commonly used in cloud services like Amazon S3, where your data is automatically encrypted at rest.
Client-Side Encryption (CSE)
With client-side encryption, you encrypt the data using your own algorithm and key, ensuring the server only receives encrypted information. This means you keep control over the encryption keys, enhancing security and helping meet strict data protection rules. In other words, not your keys, not your data.
Since encryption happens on your device, your data is secure during transmission and storage. Things get interesting here — even the service provider can’t access your unencrypted data. Overall, client-side encryption is best for highly sensitive data, as it gives you complete control over the keys and ensures privacy from the service provider, but it may slow down your system and add complexity, especially with key management and encryption processes.
And what does all of this mean? Let’s put it this way:
- Server-side encryption means your data is protected by policies.
- Client-side encryption means you manage the key, and nobody can access the data in your files.
Telegram uses a combination of both. Cloud Chats are encrypted on Telegram’s server using client-server encryption. Telegram can access the encryption keys and decrypt the messages if needed. Secret Chats use end-to-end encryption, so only the chat participants hold the encryption keys. This means Teelgram cannot access the keys or decrypt the messages.
Therefore, Durov could have accessed the data because there was some sensitive information that Telegram could technically access and decrypt —he just refused to cooperate with law enforcement.
Durov’s Arrest in France
It was all marching well (sort of) until August of 2024.
In a funny and ironic turn of events, French authorities, not Russian, arrested Durov on August 25 in relation to Telegram’s content moderation. The arrest was part of an ongoing judicial inquiry into alleged illegal activities taking place on Telegram. It sparked widespread backlash from supporters of internet freedom.
He faced preliminary charges. See, in France, magistrates who have strong reasons to believe that a crime was committed but need more time for further investigation can impose preliminary charges. Prosecutors were quoted saying that “at this stage, the only person implicated in this case,” is Durov.
Durov’s Release
Later, he was released on bail but was forbidden from leaving France. Durov released his first statement after the fact:
“When Russia demanded we hand over “encryption keys” to enable surveillance, we refused —and Telegram got banned in Russia. When Iran demanded we block channels of peaceful protesters, we refused —and Telegram got banned in Iran. We are prepared to leave markets that aren’t compatible with our principles, because we are not doing this for money. We are driven by the intention to bring good and defend the basic rights of people, particularly in places where these rights are violated.”
A few days later, Durov announced new features while cutting “a few outdated ones,” starting with removing People Nearby. This feature was already controversial when it was introduced years ago.
According to Durov, People Nearby “was used by less than 0.1% of Telegram users, but had issues with bots and scammers”.
That 0.1% of users, accordiong to Durov, are involved in illicit activities that create a bad image for Telegram, “putting the interest of our billion users at risk”. People Nearby will be replaced by Business Nearby, which showcases legitimate and verfied businesses.
Nikolai Durov, The Mastermind Behind Telegram
The architect behind Telegram and The Open Network is Nikolai Valeryevich Durov, born on November 21, 1980, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
From a young age, Nikolai demonstrated exceptional intelligence. He learned to read at just three years old and solved complex equations by eight. His education took him to Italy, where his mathematical skills began to gain attention. But it didn’t stop there.
Career and Achievements
Nikolai’s achievements in mathematics were evident early on. He won gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Additionally, he garnered three silver and one gold medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics from 1995 to 1998. He was also a key member of the Saint Petersburg State University ACM team, which won the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2000 and 2001.
Besides technology, Nikolai Durov’s work spans the academia field as well. He has led teams of world-class programmers, developing infrastructures that power platforms with over 300 million combined users.
As if these achievements weren’t enough, he also holds two PhDs: one from Saint Petersburg State University, with a thesis on Arakelov Geometry (2005), and another from the University of Bonn, where he researched singular Arakelov geometry under the supervision of Gerd Faltings (2007). He is currently a senior research fellow at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Saint Petersburg, continuing his work.
Telegram and The Open Network
Nikolai developed the MTProto protocol, which underpins Telegram’s encryption and security, making it a preferred tool for privacy-conscious users. His contributions to these platforms, especially the messenger app, have established him as a key figure in secure communication technologies.
He is also a co-founder of The Open Network (TON) and authored its original whitepaper. Although it was originally called the Telegram Open Network and planned for integration with Telegram’s messaging app, regulatory challenges forced Telegram to step back from the project. Since then, the open-source community has continued its development.
The Open Network is not just another decentralized protocol. It was designed to become a powerful web3 blockchain ecosystem that surged throughout 2024. We can summarise TON’s key features and architecture as follows:
- Multi-Blockchain Architecture:
TON operates using a multi-blockchain structure, consisting of a masterchain and various workchains. The masterchain oversees key network functions, such as protocol updates and validator elections, while the workchains operate independently, allowing them to be customized for specific applications and increasing the system’s scalability.
- Sharding Technology:
To address scalability, TON employs dynamic sharding. This technology enables the blockchain to split and merge depending on transaction volume, efficiently distributing the workload. This architecture theoretically supports millions of transactions per second, making TON one of the most scalable blockchain solutions.
- Proof-of-Stake Consensus:
TON uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, where validators are chosen based on how much Toncoin they stake. This energy-efficient system supports high transaction throughput and is well-suited for various applications, from financial transactions to digital services.
- Interoperability:
TON stands out for its cross-chain interoperability, enabling seamless communication between different blockchain networks. This feature enhances the utility of the platform and allows it to interact with other decentralized ecosystems, promoting a more connected digital landscape.
Legal Challenges
As mentioned, Nikolai tends to keep a low profile, unlike his more buoyant brother. But Pavel’s arrest also put the spotlight on Nikolai. While Nikolai is less publicly visible, he also faces charges in this ongoing controversy, given that he’s also a co-founder, and Telegram is accused of refusal to moderate illegal activity on its platform.
The War Against Privacy
A particular quote from Durov highlights the current state of things for tech innovation and user privacy in social media channels and applications.
“No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”
This quote addresses a core issue in the ongoing debate about privacy and innovation. It is especially relevant given the recent legal challenges that tech developers face and the broader context of privacy-focused technologies.
Durov’s stance on privacy, particularly with Telegram, has positioned him as a strong advocate for free speech and minimal content moderation. However, this approach has also made him a target for authorities seeking to regulate platforms that might be used for illegal activities.
Durov’s concerns reflect a growing fear among developers—if you could be held personally liable for how your tools are used, would you still create them?
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