Pável Dúrov, the visionary from whom the Kremlin snatched his 'Facebook' and counterattacked with a bigger hit: Telegram. The Russian entrepreneur exiled in Dubai is preparing the IPO of his controversial courier service after rejecting purchase offers valued at 27 billion euros.

Durov, closely investigated by Putin's spy services, left Russia in April 2014 and sold his stake in VK for $300 million to a business group close to the Kremlin. “It is impossible to manage an Internet business in this country,” cried entrepreneur. The founder of VK had launched Telegram a year earlier, a platform that has multiplied its base to 900 million since 2022.