Telegram Founder Claims Near-Fatal Poisoning After Refusing Russia’s Demands
Pavel Durov, the founding father of Telegram and developer of The Open Network (TON), revealed in a latest interview that he believed he was poisoned in 2018. The incident allegedly occurred throughout a time of escalating pressure between his messaging app and the Russian authorities.
During that interval, Telegram refused a requirement from Russia’s Federal Security Service for encryption keys, searching for entry to messaging knowledge. The nation banned the messaging app quickly after.
Pavel Durov’s Near-Fatal Collapse
In an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, Durov revealed struggling a poisoning try through the spring of 2018. He defined that TON was attempting to boost funds for a associated challenge.
The alleged incident happened at a time when Durov was experiencing vital monetary success. Telegram had accomplished two funding rounds, elevating about $1.7 billion from key traders.
He described returning residence one evening to search out one thing a “bizarre neighbor” had left across the door.
“One hour after, after I was already in my mattress… I felt very dangerous. I felt ache throughout my physique. I attempted to rise up and go to the lavatory, however whereas I used to be going there, I felt that capabilities of my physique began to modify off,” he mentioned.
As Durov defined, Telegram’s refusal to offer encryption keys for messaging knowledge to Russian safety providers led Russia to ban the app in April 2018.
Other high-profile incidents of alleged poisoning by Russian intelligence additionally marked that interval. In March 2018, the British authorities accused Russian state actors of utilizing a nerve agent on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian navy intelligence officer who had served as a double agent for the UK.
Durov mentioned it wasn’t the primary time state actors pressured him over Telegram’s operations.
Durov Accuses French Intelligence of Blackmail
Earlier this week, Durov made a social media put up concerning latest elections in Moldova. He claimed that French authorities had pressured him to ban pro-Russian channels on Telegram a yr earlier.
The European Union and Russia allegedly carried out steady efforts to exert affect over Moldova’s election regarding whether or not the nation ought to pursue EU membership or set up nearer ties with Russia.
Investigators lately uncovered a pro-Russian campaign that used cryptocurrency to finance numerous actions, together with supporting candidates, activists, and polling operations.
Durov, nonetheless, claimed that French officers tried to affect Moldova’s elections by pressuring him to ban pro-Russian Telegram channels linked to the vote. According to his account, the French authorities steered that aiding them would outcome of their offering a positive assertion to the French choose who had ordered his arrest in August 2024.
“This was unacceptable on a number of ranges. If the company did actually method the choose — it constituted an try to intrude within the judicial course of. If it didn’t, and merely claimed to have performed so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to affect political developments in Eastern Europe,” Durov said on X.
Despite Durov’s claims, they haven’t but been substantiated with concrete proof.
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