Telegram is not a Russian controlled app. Durov had to flee from Russia after the Crimea invasion because he refused to mass spy on dissidens. If anything he has a good track of not cooperating with Putin.
That's a nice cover story, but Telegram had operated for years from the same Singer House in Saint Petersburg where VK headquarters are situated.
Russian Direct Investment Fund had invested in Telegram. Nikolai Durov works at Russian Academy of Sciences.
As of 2024, Russia-the-state has no problems with either Pavel Durov or Telegram. That's suspicious to say the least.
> As of 2024, Russia-the-state has no problems with either Pavel Durov or Telegram
They only tried to ban it in 2018 and gave up in 2020 after failing to do so without cutting off access to other Internet services. The last time they blocked access to it was quite recently, on 21 August, after the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk oblast.
Telegram was using Singer House office long after VK had been sold. He definitely didn't "flee Russia". Durov family and close-to-the-oligarchs-and/or-siloviki parts of the Russian elites had parted ways on good terms.
