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A truth worthy of a film: the real biography of Pavel Durov, which he hid for many years
Pavel Durov's biography was carefully hidden for many years. Only from the book "The Durov Code" did we learn about some of the secrets of the young millionaire (at that time he was still a millionaire!), who was born in St. Petersburg and became famous worldwide. But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, so it's time to move on. After all, Durov is talked about almost every day, and no one understands what will happen to him next.
Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984, to Valery Durov and Albina Durov. His father, a native of Leningrad, was a doctor of linguistics and in 1992 headed the Department of Ancient Literature of the Linguistic Faculty of St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU).
Pavel has an older brother, Nikolai Durov, a PhD in physics and mathematics, who has been called a genius since childhood (as several authoritative sources write, if it were not for Nikolai's amazing brain, there would be neither VKontakte nor Telegram). Already in his youth, he won numerous mathematical Olympiads and twice became the world champion among students in programming competitions.
After his birth in Leningrad, the family moved briefly to Turin, then returned to his hometown of St. Petersburg, where Pavel entered the academic gymnasium. Dmitry Fadeev. At school, he studied several subjects in depth, including four foreign languages, and began programming at age 11.
Durov was mentioned several times in the collection of memorable events of the gymnasium from 1992 to 2002.
Having successfully completed high school, Durov entered the linguistics department of St. Petersburg State University. During his studies, he was repeatedly awarded the Potanin scholarship and other prestigious awards. In 2006, Pavel graduated from the university with honors.
Pavel Durov came up with his first project while still a student. He created a library for searching educational materials and a forum for students, which he named after himself. Many students still use the site durov.com.
Another project was the website spbgu.ru, a kind of prototype of the future social network VKontakte. The idea of creating a domestic analogue of the project popular abroad forced him to move in this direction. This is where Nikolai's genius came in handy, and he became its first user in October 2006. Initially, access was by invitation only, but in December of the same year, anyone could register. The site was originally called Students.ru.
The site took almost two years to develop, and it grew exponentially. By 2008, VKontakte had 20 million users. The project became the largest social network in Europe, with many countries actively joining. VKontakte was convenient, had many advantages, including free music and movies, and was easy to use.
But all this attracted the attention of businessmen who wanted access to such resources. According to media reports, Pavel came under pressure and sold most of his shares in early 2014, reportedly receiving more than $400 million.
According to some sources, 12% of the shares were bought by the former head of Megafon, Ivan Tavrin, who then resold them to Mail.ru Group. In September 2014, Mail.ru Group completed the deal to acquire the remaining 48.01% of shares, becoming the sole owner of VKontakte.
The idea to create Telegram came to Pavel when special forces came to his house in 2011. Then he realized that he could not freely tell his loved ones about what happened without fear that someone would find out about it.
The authorities have repeatedly called on Durov to change Telegram's privacy policy or block the app. However, Pavel has always remained principled, stating that he will not transfer users' personal data under any circumstances.
August 14, 2013 is the official birthday of the Telegram messenger. Although this application did not offer any fundamentally new features, its main feature was the use of the unique MTProto encryption technology developed by Nikolai Durov.
In 2017, Pavel Durov moved the company's headquarters to Dubai. In his opinion, traditional social networks are outdated. He noted that the information in news feeds is so overloaded with unnecessary data that it is difficult to focus on the main thing. Pavel is convinced that the future belongs to messengers, and those who want to stay in the center of events have already switched to this form of communication.
In the summer of the same year, Telegram faced the threat of being blocked in Indonesia. The reason was that the authorities did not respond in time to requests to block terrorist channels. Durov explained this as a misunderstanding and quickly resolved the issue. He blacklisted the channel, contacted the Indonesian government and created a special team of native speakers to continue the work.
In the spring of 2018, protests broke out across Russia when Roskomnadzor tried to block Telegram. People flew paper airplanes symbolizing the app’s logo in support of Messenger. The problem was then resolved, and Telegram remains one of the most used messengers in Russia.
Even after the introduction of paid subscriptions to many services, there was no outflow of users. In 2023, Durov called the launch of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets the next step in the development of the messenger.
At the end of 2017, there were rumors that Pavel Durov was developing his own cryptocurrency called Gram and the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain platform. The first to talk about this was former employee Anton Rosenberg, who left the team at the height of the conflict. Nikolai Durov began to show interest in his wife, which caused the scandal. But Durov could not fire his brother, so he fired another employee.
TON's biggest advantage over its competitors was its high operating speed and integration with other messengers and social networks.
In early 2018, Telegram executives officially confirmed plans to launch a blockchain platform. During the preparation period, Durov's company sold 2.9 billion tokens, attracting $1.7 billion in investments. The platform and cryptocurrency launch for transactions within the system are expected to occur before the end of October 2019.
However, a few days before the planned launch, a US court blocked the launch of Gram at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Regulators found that the company's actions violated US securities laws. Pavel Durov challenged this decision in court, but to no avail. As a result, in the spring of 2020, he announced the closure of the TON project. Investors were given the opportunity to return their investment funds.
Despite his closed nature and minimal communication with the press, Pavel Durov has had problems several times, after which he got into serious scandals. For example, in 2011, a photo of a programmer raising his middle finger went viral. According to the founder of VKontakte, this obscene gesture was an official response to the Mail.ru group's offer to acquire the social network.
A big scandal also erupted after Pavel began throwing five-thousand ruble bills out of the window of VK's central office on Nevsky Prospekt.
VK also had problems due to copyright infringement. Due to a conflict with the Vedomosti newspaper, links and pages were mutually blocked. After claims from singer Sergey Lazarev, the founder of the network deleted all his compositions and returned to the platform only in 2016.
In 2019, a new notable topic related to Durov's name began to be discussed. In an interview, Nastya Rybka, known as a billionaire hunter, told about her meeting with the programmer. According to the girl, this happened when Pavel sent her a letter and offered to meet him. The meeting took place in a fashionable club, but did not lead to anything. Rybka explained that in life, Pavel Durov looks much more modest than in photographs.
In April 2014, it became known that Pavel Durov had left Russia and was not planning to return. In the summer, he received citizenship of the small island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis. With a passport from this country, he can travel freely around the world. He received citizenship after investing $250,000 in the local economy.
After leaving Russia, Pavel settled in the United Arab Emirates and received a residence visa, which was essentially a residence permit. And in April 2022, it became known that Durov also received UAE citizenship. Rumor has it that he has become one of the richest residents of the UAE, with a fortune estimated at $30 billion. He lives in a villa rented from a local billionaire.
Pavel Durov's classmates recall that in his youth he was not particularly handsome, but rather resembled a typical nerd with thin hair. Pavel never went completely bald, but suffered from male-pattern baldness. However, in the mid-2010s, Durov took over his own management and had a hair transplant, becoming the owner of thick hair.
He also actively engaged in sports, taking numerous photographs of his steel torso and sculpted muscles. As Durov himself writes, he hardened himself with cold water, ate healthy food, and also gave up drinking and smoking.
For many years, there were only rumors about Pavel Durov's personal life. He was seen with models, actresses, singers and businesswomen, but no one officially said what kind of relationship he had with the businessman. His fans did not even know whether he was officially married. It turns out that he was.
There have been numerous media reports that he may have children with Daria Bondarenko, whom he has known since his student days. According to rumors, the couple has a daughter (name unknown) and a son, Mikhail. Durov officially introduced his eldest daughter only in the fall of 2024, showing her photo on social networks. At the same time, Daria Bondarenko lived separately for a long time and hardly communicated with her former lover.
Pavel was also known for his romantic relationships with Timati's former common-law wife Alena Shishkova, model Victoria Odintsova and blogger Masha Trotsko. This rumor was based on photographs of Durov with these girls, but the media did not provide any other evidence.
In 2024, rumors about Durov's relationship with Diana Bako began to spread online. In July last year, the girl shared a photo in which her belly was noticeably rounded, which caused rumors that Pavel could become a father again. After that, Durov gave his biological material and, as the clinic said, could become the father of 100 children, since many people around the world used it.
The main event of 2024 was the appearance of Irina Bolgar, who called herself Durov's lover and bore him three children. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Irina confirmed that her children David, Daniil and Leah are Pavel's heirs.
According to her, Pavel recognized the children and met with them regularly. She also published joint photos with Pavel and the children and provided Forbes with documents confirming his paternity, including a copy of the birth certificate.
Irina also reported that the Tribunal for the Protection of Children and Adults in Geneva deprived the businessman of parental rights. She currently lives in Switzerland with her children.
For several months, Bolgar posted various photos, videos and other materials showing that they were living as a family. At the same time, Pavel's representative decided to give an interview to The New York Times, stating that the woman was a yoga instructor and had simply given birth to the billionaire's children.
Irina later revealed that she was planning to write a book about her relationship with Durov. In response to the growing number of reports, Pavel's representative stated that he never had a relationship with Bolgar, but he did provide financial support for his children in the form of alimony.
Here is what Pavel Durov's former press secretary Georgy Lobushkin had to say about the situation:
At the same time, according to him, Irina, while always talking about what a wonderful mother she was, forgot to add that she lived on Durov’s money and practically bathed in luxury.
In the first half of 2023, her access to Durov's accounts was finally cut off when Irina's spending on expensive luxury items exceeded the norms of decency. By a strange coincidence, it was at this moment that Irina's mother's heart began to beat unusually fast. Bolgar's memories of abuse also surfaced when she filed for sole custody to seek child support.
The French arrest and the legacy of Yulia Vavilova
On August 24, it became known that Pavel Durov had been detained. The arrest took place at Le Bourget Airport. Representatives of French law enforcement agencies suspected the Telegram founder of involvement in serious crimes due to insufficient content moderation in the messenger. The media also suggested that the reason for the arrest could be Pavel's refusal to cooperate with French intelligence. During the arrest, Durov was accompanied by his new girlfriend Yulia Vavilova.
On August 26, President Emmanuel Macron commented on the situation, stating that the arrests were not related to politics, but only to a judicial investigation. The French president emphasized that Durov is a citizen of the country.
The billionaire was arrested until August 28, and Vavilov was released after questioning. In March, an arrest warrant was issued for Pavel, and his brother Nikolai was also put on the wanted list.
After the trial, Durov was placed under judicial supervision. He was banned from leaving France, ordered to report to the police twice a week, and was ordered to pay bail of 5 million euros. All of his passports were confiscated. In addition to the charges related to Telegram, Irina Bolgar filed a lawsuit. She said that Pavel had used violence against his son, and recalled that he had already been deprived of parental rights to David, Daniil, and Leah.
After his release, Durov was seen in Paris with Vavilova. The prosecutor's office gave him access to the case materials, and the businessman was obliged to live at the address he indicated.
In his first statement after his release, Pavel expressed surprise at the arrest, citing the difficulty of balancing user safety and privacy. But he said he was willing to talk to French authorities. Weeks later, Durov announced a review of Telegram’s privacy policy. IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects can now be shared with law enforcement officials upon formal legal request.
In October, Pavel announced that Vavilova was pregnant with his child, but lost the baby at 10 weeks.
Pavel Durov is currently under investigation in France. He is banned from leaving the country and must report to police twice a week until all legal issues are resolved.
Durov lives in the presidential suite of a luxury hotel in the center of Paris, while experts are simultaneously looking for separate real estate for him so as not to attract attention to himself.
Rumor has it that he decided to negotiate with the French authorities and provide them with encryption codes. Some experts speak about this indirectly. At the same time, Durov himself became more active on social networks, and it was from him that the information about the child's disappearance came. In addition, he emphasized that in the future he would communicate more with the public and reveal secrets that no one knew about before.