Tech mogul Pavel Durov is often seen as Russia's answer to Mark Zuckerberg, but he takes umbrage with his first company being dismissed as a mere Facebook clone. Durov has repeatedly bumped heads with the Kremlin. The unexpected arrest of Pavel Durov in France has sent out shockwaves through his digital empire, the Telegram messaging app , which boasts over 900 million active users.
The Russian-born billionaire created the app together with his older brother, gifted mathematician and programmer Nikolai Durov. The brothers have built up the platform's reputation for privacy by building up layers of data protection and repeatedly defying state actors who requested access. At the same time, Telegram's critics describe it as a "Wild West" app where disinformation and propaganda spreads with little to no oversight .
Supporters demand release of Telegram boss in France To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video It is only one of the projects launched by Pavel Durov, who is often described as "Russia's Mark Zuckerberg." VKontakte — Facebook's Russian rival Pavel Durov was born in St. Petersburg in the former Soviet Union in 1984.
Both of his parents were lecturers at the St. Petersburg State University. When Durov was four, his family moved to Italy and spent the next four years there.
Durov started attending elementary school in Turin. In 1992, his family returned to Durov's home city and his father took over as .