Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram and developer of Open Network (Ton), revealed in a recent interview that he believed he was poisoned in 2018. The incident supposedly occurred for an increasing tension time between its messaging application and the Russian government.
During that period, Telegram rejected a demand for the Russian federal security service for encryption keys, looking for access to messaging data. The country prohibited the messaging application shortly after.
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The almost fatal collapse of Pavel Durov
In an interview in the Podcast Lex Fridman, Durov revealed to suffer an attempt to poisoned during the spring of 2018. He explained that Ton was trying to raise funds for a related project.
The alleged incident took place at a time when Durov was experiencing significant financial success. Telegram had completed two financing rounds, raising around $ 1.7 billion of key investors.
He described to return home to find something that a “strange neighbor” had left around the door.
“An hour later, when I was already in my bed … I felt very bad. I felt pain throughout my body. I tried to get up and go to the bathroom, but while I was there, I felt that the functions of my body began to disconnect,” he said.
As Durav explained, Telegram’s refusal to provide encryption keys for messaging data to Russian security services led Russia to ban the application in April 2018.
Other high -profile incidents of alleged poisoning by Russian intelligence also marked that period. In March 2018, the British government accused the state -of -the -law actors of using a nervous agent in Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who had served as a double agent for the United Kingdom.
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Durov said it was not the first time that state actors pressed him to Telegram’s operations.
Durov accuses French intelligence of blackmail
Earlier this week, Durov made a publication on social networks on recent elections in Moldova. He affirmed that the French authorities had pressed him to ban pro-ruse channels in Telegram a year earlier.
The European Union and Russia allegedly carried out continuous efforts to exercise influence on the choice of Moldova with respect to whether the nation should pursue EU membership or establish closer ties with Russia.
Recently, the researchers discovered a pro-ruse campaign that used cryptocurrencies to finance various activities, including support for candidates, activists and voting operations.
Durov, however, said that French officials tried to influence Moldova’s elections by pressing it to ban pro-ruso telegram channels connected to the vote. According to their account, the French authorities suggested that helping them would result in providing a favorable statement to the French judge who had ordered his arrest in August 2024.
“This was unacceptable on several levels. If the agency in fact approached the judge, it was an attempt to interfere with the judicial process. If he did not, and simply claimed to have done it, then I was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence the political developments in Europe of the East,” said Durov in X.
Despite Dorav’s claims, they have not yet been justified with concrete evidence.
