Who is Pavel Durov, the enigmatic French-Russian boss of Telegram?
Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging service Telegram, is a tech titan known for his fierce defence of privacy and free speech. Recently released from French police custody after four days of questioning over Telegram's alleged misuse, Russian-born Durov – a naturalised French citizen known as "Paul Du Rove" in France – remains a figure of intrigue.
Born in Leningrad – now St Petersburg – in 1984, Durov’s early life was marked by a move for his father's work to Italy, where he and his older brother Nikolai excelled academically.
While Nikolai became a mathematical prodigy, Pavel thrived in languages, topping his class after just two years in Turin.
After the family moved back to the Soviet Union in 1990, the brothers lived through the fall of the USSR and the chaotic years that followed under Boris Yeltsin.
They also started experimenting with coding and the internet. "As we had taken IBM computers from Italy we were some of the rare people who were introduced to this technology," Durov revealed in a recent interview.
He then went on to create the social network VKontakte, or VK, which would become known as "Russia's Facebook" – and eventually in 2013, Telegram.
Durov sold his stake in VKontakte after pressure from Russian authorities in 2014. They accused the network of being used by opposition figures and playing a role in the Maidan uprising in Ukraine, which resulted in the deposition of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
But he also addressed issues of moderation and censorship.
Read more on RFI English
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