Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

themoscowtimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 109 posts

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#6

Post by broflosup »

He made $260 million in Russia creating a copy of Facebook. He sold his shares and resigned.

But wait, he didn't _really_ resign. No, it was all an April fools joke! The investors didn't buy it and fired him.

He claims the site is now under the control of Kremlin because one of its shareholders is Alisher Usmanov, an alleged ally of Putin. Yet, that guy was a shareholder for awhile now and Durov never complained about him.

I don't know. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Sounds like someone is trying to stay relevant by creating controversy and generating hype for a new messaging system that's supposed to protect you from government's eyes.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#7

Post by JasonFruit »

jsumrall wrote: post #3

I'm not sure how to articulate it, but I find it immensely interesting that Snowden fled to Russia, while Pavel is fleeing from Russia, both for issues within similar realms.

It's not that surprising that people who disagree with their own government would flee to the protection of another, or that the destination government would play it for political advantage.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#8

Post by DangerousPie »

jsumrall wrote: post #3

I'm not sure how to articulate it, but I find it immensely interesting that Snowden fled to Russia, while Pavel is fleeing from Russia, both for issues within similar realms.

Similar realms maybe, but I still think there is a huge difference between exposing your country's secret service operations and running a popular website. The fact that the former gets you into legal trouble is expected. The fact that the latter does is very concerning.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#9

Post by codecondo »

broflosup wrote: post #6

He made $260 million in Russia creating a copy of Facebook. He sold his shares and resigned. But wait, he didn't _really_ resign. No, it was all an April fools joke! The investors didn't buy it and fired him. He claims the site is now under the control of Kremlin because one of its shareholders is Alisher Usmanov, an alleged ally of Putin. Yet, that guy was a shareholder for awhile now and Durov never complained abou…

I think you just helped to generate an extra 50% of the hype they're after.
Post reply on HN