Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram and developer of Open Network (Ton), revealed in a recent interview that he believes he was poisoned in 2018.
During that period, Telegram rejected requests for encryption keys from the Russian federal security services and requested access to messaging data. The country quickly banned messaging apps.
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Near-fat collapse of Pavel Durov
In an interview with the Lex Fridman Podcast, Durov revealed that he was suffering from an attempted addiction in the spring of 2018. He explained that Ton is trying to raise funds for related projects.
The alleged case occurred when Durov was experiencing significant financial success. Telegram has completed two funding rounds and raised approximately $1.7 billion from major investors.
He went home one night and explained that he would find something left around the door with a “strange neighbor.”
“An hour later, when I was already in bed… I felt very sick. I felt pain all over my body. I got up and went to the bathroom, and while I was there, I felt my body started to turn off,” he said.
As Durov explained, Russia banned the app in April 2018 after Telegram refused to provide encryption keys to send messages to Russian security services.
Other famous incidents of alleged addiction by the Russian Intelligence Report also marked that period. In March 2018, the UK government accused former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal of using Russian state officials in Sergei Skripal.
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Durov said it wasn’t the first time a state actor has put pressure on him on Telegram’s operation.
Durov accused him of blackmailing French intelligence
Earlier this week, Doloff made a social media post about his recent election in Moldova. He claimed that French authorities had pressured Telegram to ban pro-Russian channels a year ago.
The European Union and Russia are said to have made continuous efforts to influence Moldova’s elections regarding whether the state should pursue EU accession or establish close ties with Russia.
Investigators recently discovered a pro-Russian campaign that used cryptocurrency to fund a variety of activities, including candidates, activists and voting work.
But Durov argued that French officials had tried to influence Moldova’s elections by pressuring them to ban pro-Russian telegram channels related to the vote. According to his account, French authorities proposed to provide a positive statement to the French judge who ordered arrest in August 2024 by supporting them.
“This was unacceptable on some levels. If the institution actually approached the judge – it constituted an attempt to interfere with the judicial process. If it did not, and if I simply argued that it did, it was misusing my legal situation in France to affect the political developments of Eastern Europe,” Durov said.
Despite Durov’s claims, they have not yet been demonstrated with concrete evidence.
