VKontakte founder leaves Russia, taking 12 programmers with him

Pavel Durov, Russian Mark Zuckerberg, leaves Russia, taking with him twelve programmers who have worked on Vkontakte and Telegram. The indirect reason for this seems to be that the majority of VKontakte shares fall into the hands of Putin supporters.

On a Facebook post, Durov announces his departure from Russia. Durov does not say it in so many words, but the reason for his departure is probably due to the shadowy situation surrounding his dismissal from VKontakte. It is unclear whether Durov was fired or resigned himself from VKontakte, but it is clear that he was not happy with the large influence that Putin-promoting investors have on the social network.

Durov states that he and twelve programmers, who have worked on Telegram and VKontakte, among others, have set up temporary headquarters somewhere in central Europe, and are now looking for a new country to settle in. The Russian plans to set up a new ‘mobile social network’ together with the programmers.

Durov calls on both citizens and governments to come up with ideas and suggestions for countries where the team can settle permanently. Conditions he sets are freedom, a strong justice system, a small government, a free market, neutrality and civil rights. Pavel does not declare that he likes war, bureaucracy, police states, large governments, socialism and too much regulation.

Durov’s move is likely to have little impact on Telegram’s development, despite Durov starting Telegram in 2013 with his brother. The chat client is being developed as an open source project and Telegram Messenger LLP is overseeing the development from an office in Berlin. That organization has no ties to VKontakte. Since the takeover of Whatsapp by Facebook, the popularity of the Russian chat application has risen sharply. Durov claims in the Facebook post that Telegram now has more than 40 million registered users.