Telegram founder and The Open Community (TON) developer Pavel Durov has claimed that he was poisoned in 2018 as tensions between Telegram and Russia started to escalate.
Durov revealed the poisoning try throughout an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast on Tuesday. In it, he described a “weird” neighbor leaving one thing on the door of the townhouse he was renting.
Inside the hour, he mentioned he started to concern for his life as his physique started to close down and he collapsed. Durov says he finally wakened coated in damaged blood vessels and was unable to stroll for 2 weeks.
Durov poisoned throughout eventful spring
Durov didn’t specify precisely when the poisoning occurred, solely revealing that it occurred within the spring of 2018.
It was round this time that his TON crypto challenge raised $1.7 billion throughout two funding rounds from 170 buyers, together with varied Russian billionaires.
Then in April, Telegram refused to present encryption keys to Russia’s Federal Safety Service, which wished entry to messaging information. Russia finally banned the app later that month.
Russia did elevate its ban two years later, after Telegram cooperated with its terrorist investigation, though the ban reportedly had little impact.
March 2018 additionally noticed the Salisbury poisonings within the UK, through which two high-ranking Russian intelligence brokers tried to poison the previous Russian army officer, Sergei Skripal utilizing Novichok nerve agent.
Durov inspired to share extra on poison try
Durov’s claimed poisoning has raised questions from Christo Grozev, the previous lead Russian investigator for Bellingcat, who coated the Salisbury poisonings and the dying of Putin opponent, Alexey Navalny.
Certainly, he implored Durov to share when and the place he was poisoned in order that the perpetrator could possibly be uncovered.
He mentioned, “It’s not a sign of selflessness to hide this from your friends and colleagues. It’s a sign of courage — and responsibility — to allow us to look into what happened to you and who was behind it.”
I imagine him this occurred. Sadly, he did not volunteer data on the place this occurred (I want he had, so we may triangulate the same old suspects – in 2018 he was a MAJOR thorn within the facet of Russian authorities). However because of leaked databases we will have some guesses.
— [email protected] (@christogrozev) September 30, 2025
Grozev additionally famous the “likely coincidence” that Durov left the UK for Dubai someday after the Salisbury suspects left the UK for Moscow.
He additionally reported that in 2018, Durov was recorded spending most of his time in Dubai, whereas additionally visiting the UK, France, and Switzerland.
Grozev famous that in 2020, Durov started visiting Russia once more for the primary time since 2017. He additionally detailed how Telegram shut down Nalvany’s sensible voting Telegram software throughout Russia’s 2021 election.
In response to the Necessary Tales 2024 report, Durov hasn’t visited Russia since October 2021.
