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.
Durov then left Russia and moved the Telegram headquarters to Dubai, which he called "the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech" in an April interview with conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson.
'Invited by Macron'
According to the Wall Street Journal, Durov came to France in 2018 under circumstances that were completely different from his detention this week: invited by French President Emmanuel Macron himself, Durov found himself pressed to move the Telegram HQ to Paris.
At a lunch with the French leader, "Macron invited the Russian-born Durov to move Telegram to Paris, people familiar with the discussions said", according to the newspaper.
The Journal says Durov declined the offer, but a French official quoted by the paper said he asked Macron for citizenship – which he later obtained, although he hardly spoke any French at the time and had never lived there.
He was eventually naturalised in August 2021 and officially "Frenchified" his name to Paul du Rove one year later, based on a rule that grants citizenship to "a French-speaking foreigner who, through their outstanding actions, contributes to the influence of France and the prosperity of its international economic relations".
Apart from his Russian and French passports, Durov also holds nationality of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates, and speaks multiple languages, among them Italian and Ukranian.
Du Rove's Channel
Until his detention in Paris, Durov was active on "Du Rove's Channel" on Telegram, where he has over 11 million followers. He typically used it to update his readers about technical developments and new features of the app – now in its 11th year – boasting, in February, that "broadcast channels on Telegram generate 1 trillion views monthly".
Before his detention, he posted pictures about his trips to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan over the summer, and speculated that he may have "over 100 biological kids" after regularly donating sperm to a clinic that serves 12 different countries.
But he also addressed issues of moderation and censorship.
In a post in October last year, he said that "every day, Telegram's moderators and AI tools remove millions of obviously harmful content from our public platform" – adding, one month later, that "all large social media apps are easy targets for criticism due to the content they host" and that "media coverage of Meta's moderation efforts has been particularly negative for most of its history".
He then promised: "We shall solve any potential challenges the same way we do everything else – with efficiency, innovation and respect for privacy and freedom of speech."
And on 13 October, a week after Hamas's attack on Israel, Durov posted: "Hamas used Telegram to warn civilians in Ashkelon to leave the area ahead of their missile strikes. Would shutting down their channel help save lives – or would it endanger more lives?"
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User choice
Separately, Durov also pointed out that he tried to restrict Telegram channels in Russia and Ukraine, because they were being used for military propaganda.
But "both our Ukrainian and Russian users vehemently opposed restrictions, prioritising the freedom to access information, even when it’s biased," he wrote. "I supported our users’ choice."
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And in China – known for its merciless crackdown against any form of dissent – Durov claims that Telegram is "the number-one most downloaded mobile app".
"Access to Telegram requires a VPN in China, but Chinese people are smart – they like Telegram and find a way to use it," he says.
