Pavel Durov visited Russia 50 times from 2015 to 2021 despite claiming that he was in exile. Recently published documents by a Russian media organisation from an extensive leak of FSB documents have revealed all the trips that Pavel Durov made whilst claiming to be in exile. After leaving Russia in 2014, Pavel Durov returned to Saint Petersburg, Russia in May 2015.
During this period, Pavel Durov was being sought by the Russian authorities for similar charges being drawn up against him in France. He was also sought by the Russian authorities to provide information on Ukrainian opposition groups that opposed the pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovich during the Maidan revolution in 2014. Miraculously, the charges against Pavel Durov were dropped by the Russian authorities.
Russia has a long history of coercing its dissidents to change their politics and support the Putin regime with case in point being Anton Krasovksy who became a pro-Putin propagandist to avoid jail-time. Another flipper was Vladimir Solovyov.
Pavel Durov is currently under arrest in France for failing to take down illegal content on the Telegram application after repeated requests by the French authorities, however the case is more complex given that Telegram is the main communication tool for the Russian army and security services to the outside world.
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