NeugierigS

Passionate about international development through public diplomacy. All views are mine. I tweet about #ICT, #gender, #inclusion and related topics.

[Christo Grozev @christogrozev]

Travel record show that while working for RT and living in Russia, Konstantin used his visa-advantageous Ukrainian passport to travel throughout Europe, the UK, and made 4 trips the US West Coast between 2016 and 2021. How he got a US visa given his background is interesting.

[Christo Grozev @christogrozev]

Born in Donetsk, Ukraine, Konstiantyn/Konstantin was the (adopted) son of Donetsk's deputy mayor who sided with the Russian invaders in 2014. Here, the two in a "Dolce & Gabanna family" photo they posted on the Dolce & Gabanna website for a competition.

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

In particular, on June 18, 2020, when Russia allegedly ended its ban of Telegram
2/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

A quick version comes in this thread, all the details in the publication on @pravda_eng
3/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

1. In December 2023, the Kremlingram investigation team was anonymously sent an spreadsheet with the data on Pavel Durov's crossings of the Russian border in 2015-2021 which would contradict his official "pariah" narrative.
4/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

2. We could not confirm the authenticity of this data for a long time. Therefore – we didn't publish
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

3. Yesterday, on August 26, 2024, Russian media @meduza_en wrote about the leak of a large FSB database, and that among them there is a record of Durov's crossing of the Russian border on August 5, 2015 https://t.co/tDtHumoc6h
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

4. This completely coincides with one of the entries in the email we received, which contains a total of 125 entries of Pavel's entry and exit to Russia
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

5. Both sources of the leaks are anonymous, we do not know their goals, but now we can very likely consider the data of the anonymous email to be authentic
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

6. According to them, Pavel visited Russia many times from 2015 to 2021, while claiming to be in conflict with the authorities and an exile in the country where he was born
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

7. His Instagram photos do not contradict the dates and locations of his trips and contain photos of many destinations other than Russia
10/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

8. There are no records in the database from December 2017, when he left for Finland, until June 20, 2020
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

9. As a reminder, Telegram was allegedly blocked in Russia on April 16, 2018, and allegedly unblocked on June 20, 2020, at 15:00.
https://t.co/vG50Cu21K6
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

10. The record of June 20, 2020, says that Durov took off from Russia at 19:13. There is no data on how he got to Russia before that (either it was not there or it was deleted from the database).
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

After this text was written, but before it was published, the Russian publication Vazhnye Istorii published the news that, according to a database that became available recently, Durov crossed the border more than 50 times from 2015 to 2021. https://t.co/XcOn748gxc
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

Their data fully coincides with our source, and the article contains many important details about the context of the Telegram founder's movements.
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

Conculsions:
1. Durov concealed his visits to Russia in 2015-2021
16/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

2. Despite the fact that "the FSB took Vkontakte away from Pavel in 2014", his relationship with the Russian authorities in 2015-2021 was good enough that he was not afraid of being detained while crossing the border
17/X

[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

4. As proof of his lack of ties to Russia, Pavel claimed that he was no longer a Russian entrepreneur and had dual citizenship in France and the UAE. This is a manipulation, as after his arrest we know that he also has a valid Russian passport.
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[Yaroslav Azhnyuk / Ярослав Ажнюк @YaroslavAzhnyuk]

5. In the same response Telegram insisted that he had no agreements with the Russian authorities. Now it seems clear that this was not a unilateral decision by RosComNadzor, Pavel Durov was involved. As soon as the decision came into force, he left the territory of Russia.
20/X