When Tim Draper defended Pavel Durov (a Russian state-security asset), I was shocked by his error of judgement because I have great respect and admiration for Tim Draper. I think he is sincere and genuine in his replies and his way thinking, but as a journalist, I am compelled to confront him about this. I asked him some questions and he gave me some interesting answer which I am publishing in full.
Why are you supporting Pavel Durov who is clearly a Russian state-security asset?
I will always support the entrepreneur against government overreach. I also believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. People who stand up for freedom and free speech have been under attack of late–and ironically, some members of the (free speech) press are doing the attacking.
There is extensive evidence showing that Telegram is a Russian secret services operation.
I would be very surprised at that. I met Pavel and I am confident that he believes deeply in freedom of speech. The whole premise of Telegram was to allow free speech. The origin story was to build a way for him and his brother to communicate without the Russian government interfering.
Do you have an investment in Telegram?
I have offered to invest, but to date, Pavel has not been willing to sell equity. We did buy some TON tokens.
Are you tied by investments in some other way to Russian oligarchs? To be fair you launched a VC Fund in 2007 for Russian investments. This was before Russia invaded Crimea. However, things have changed since then and today, Russia is attacking Ukraine, conducting disinformation campaigns against the West and over-all fighting a hybrid war against Europe and the United States.
No. We have no Russian funds or investments. We have tried several times, but all of our attempts to set up venture capital in Russia were a bust. We have no plans to go back.
What is your opinion with regard to Russian investments by Westerners today after all that has happened globally?
I wouldn’t invest a penny in Russia until they have a new leader.
If you invested in Russia previously, would you do so again today considering what happened (Crimea, Ukraine, etc.)?
No. Not unless they get a new leader, and even then, I would be reluctant.
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