Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram and developer of The Open Network (TON), disclosed in a recent interview that he suspects he was poisoned in 2018. This incident reportedly took place amid rising tensions between his messaging platform and the Russian government.
At that time, Telegram resisted a demand from Russia’s Federal Security Service for encryption keys, intending to access messaging data. The government subsequently banned the app.
Sponsored
Sponsored
Pavel Durov’s Near-Fatal Collapse
In an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, Durov recounted an attempt on his life in spring 2018. He explained that TON was in the process of raising funds for a project related to it.
The alleged incident coincided with a period of significant financial achievement for Durov, as Telegram had successfully completed two funding rounds, amassing around $1.7 billion from prominent investors.
Durov described arriving home one night to find an odd item left near his door by a “weird neighbor.”
“One hour after, when I was already in my bed… I felt very bad. I felt pain all over my body. I tried to get up and go to the bathroom, but while I was going there, I felt that functions of my body started to switch off,” he recounted.
Durov noted that Telegram’s refusal to provide encryption keys to Russian security services led to the app’s ban in April 2018.
This period was also marked by other high-profile alleged poisoning cases involving Russian intelligence. In March 2018, the British government accused Russian agents of using a nerve agent on Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK.
Sponsored
Sponsored
Durov stated that this was not the first time he faced pressure from state actors regarding Telegram’s operations.
Durov Accuses French Intelligence of Blackmail
Both the European Union and Russia reportedly undertook ongoing efforts to influence the outcome of Moldova’s election concerning its EU membership or closer ties with Russia.
Investigators recently revealed a pro-Russian campaign that utilized cryptocurrency to fund various activities, including support for candidates, activists, and polling operations.
Durov, however, alleged that French officials sought to sway Moldova’s elections by pressuring him to eliminate pro-Russian Telegram channels linked to the vote. According to his claims, the French authorities indicated that compliance would lead to a favorable statement from the French judge who had ordered his arrest in August 2024.
“This was unacceptable on several levels. If the agency did indeed approach the judge — it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe,” Durov declared on X.
Despite Durov’s assertions, these claims have yet to be supported by concrete evidence.
