An investigation by Important Stories, an independent Russian-language news outlet, has uncovered that Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of Telegram, made over 50 trips to Russia between 2015 and 2021. This information reportedly contradicts Durov’s previous public statements about avoiding travel to Russia.
The August 27 report cites leaked data from the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB), the country’s main intelligence agency. This data was allegedly leaked by August 20 and subsequently removed from public access on August 26.
Important Stories claims partial verification of this data through an investigator associated with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The report details that Durov did not attempt to hide his travels. He reportedly used commercial Aeroflot flights for trips between St. Petersburg and various European cities and traveled by Russian Railway trains between Russia and Helsinki, Finland.
Background and Public Statements
Durov, who is of Russian origin, co-founded VKontakte, a major Russian social network, in 2006. In 2014, he resigned as CEO of VKontakte and sold his 12% stake to Ivan Tavrin, CEO of MegaFon, following his refusal to comply with an FSB request to provide personal data of Ukrainian protesters.
Durov left Russia in April 2014, and his only publicly acknowledged visit to the country since then was in the fall of 2014, when he returned briefly to sell his data center, ICVA Ltd.
Travel Patterns and Public Statements
According to Important Stories, Durov traveled to Russia repeatedly between 2015 and 2017 and again from 2020 to 2021. The only gap in his travel occurred between 2018 and 2020. This information contrasts sharply with Durov’s April interview with Tucker Carlson, where he stated that he avoids traveling to countries like Russia and China, which he believes do not align with Telegram’s values.
In 2018, Russia banned Telegram for refusing to grant state agencies access to users’ encrypted messages, though the ban was lifted in 2020.
Recent Developments
Durov was arrested in France on August 24. French authorities have accused him of failing to adequately moderate illegal activities on Telegram, including drug trafficking, fraud, and organized crime.
The discrepancies between Durov’s public statements and the newly revealed travel data raise questions about his true engagement with Russia since his departure.
