News
Telegram founder Pavel Durov entered Russia more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021 — this despite his statements to the contrary. Durov was in Russia in 2017 when the FSB demanded Telegram’s encryption keys, in 2020 when Roskomnadzor surrendered in its attempts to block the messenger service, and in 2021 when Telegram removed bots associated with Navalny's team. The details of his visits were highlighted by Important Stories, which analyzed data from the largest ever FSB leak — a Border Service archive called “Kordon.” The information has been confirmed by The Insider.
In 2014, Pavel Durov claimed that the FSB had demanded he disclose data from VKontakte groups used by Ukrainians to organize protests during Euromaidan. In April of that year, he sold his stake in the company and left the country. “There is no turning back, especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities,” Durov stated following his departure.
Ten years later, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Durov claimed, “I travel to places that, I'm certain, align with our values and what we do. I do not visit major geopolitical powers or other countries — such as China, Russia, or even the United States.”
In reality, however, Durov visited Russia at least 50 times between 2015–2017 and 2020–2021. He spent most of 2017 in the country at a time when Russian authorities were engaged in a campaign against Telegram. Durov left Russia just before the New Year in 2018 but returned less than three years later.
On June 18, 2020 — the day Telegram was technically unblocked in Russia — Durov was in the country. On June 20, 2020, he flew to St. Petersburg. After this, he spent over a year dividing his time between Russia, the UAE, and Europe. This period included the blocking of the “Smart Voting” Telegram bot launched by opposition leader Alexei Navalny's team ahead of the 2021 State Duma elections. In October 2021, Durov flew from St. Petersburg to Ibiza and has not returned to Russia since.
Russian regulators are not the only ones who have taken an interest in Durov’s projects. In 2018, Durov and his brother Nikolai raised $1.7 billion to launch the TON platform and issue the Gram cryptocurrency. Among the Russian investors in TON were Qiwi co-founder Sergey Solonin and one of the founders of Wimm-Bill-Dann, David Yakobashvili. Other potential investors included billionaire Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Abyzov, and Said Gutseriev’s fund.
However, in 2019, Durov faced a major setback. Just before the launch, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) blocked the deal, classifying Gram as a financial security that required proper regulatory approval. The SEC filed a lawsuit, leading to the postponement of the project from the fall of 2019 to April 30, 2020. After prolonged legal battles, the U.S. court preliminarily ruled that Gram was indeed a security, effectively halting the launch of the TON platform and the issuance of the cryptocurrency.
As a result, investment firm Da Vinci Capital demanded $20 million from Durov (with some estimates of the liability reaching up to $100 million) due to the failed launch of TON. This issue arose alongside the regulatory blockages, and in 2020 and 2021, Durov was able to negotiate a repayment plan with Russian investors.