Arresting Durov

A dangerous intersection of geopolitics and business

“One of the most interesting parts of Durov’s arrest is actually where he was coming from: Azerbaijan. Because, along with Durov, another Russian was just in Azerbaijan: Vladimir Putin.”

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It is rare for billionaires to find themselves outplayed.

But, it appears this is exactly what happened to Pavel Durov, the reclusive Russian billionaire based in Dubai whose platforms underpin much of the Russian-speaking world.

Durov was arrested on August 24 in France on a flight from Azerbaijan.

His main platform, Telegram, a Russian equivalent to WhatsApp, has over 800 million users globally. A separate platform he co-founded, VK (VKontakte), essentially the Facebook of Russia, has over 600 million users.

It is not a stretch to say Durov’s work and ideas have the same bearing as Zuckerberg or Musk.

The story around VK is particularly interesting.

In 2013-14, the Kremlin was pressuring Durov to hand over data on Ukrainian users. The Maidan Uprising in Kyiv, shuddering closer integration between Ukraine and the EU, and simultaneously, fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Donbas, an eastern region of Ukraine (now occupied by Russia), had raised the importance of Ukraine in Russian geostrategic thinking.