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Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

themoscowtimes.com

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Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#21

Post by rosser »

melling wrote: post #12
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.

What's so hard to understand? Hacker News has a lot of naive people who have no idea how the world works. Hey, the 80's called, and if you were born during or after, it's probably time to ask what you don't understand. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/...

You aren't exactly wrong, but being smug about it doesn't make for productive discourse.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#24

Post by raverbashing »

mverwijs wrote: post #17
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.

This is factually incorrect. Snowden stranded in Russia. He had a ticket for Cuba where intended to transfer to Bolivia(?). Either way: not Russia.

Yeah, but I don't think his current visa was given out "of the goodness of their hearts"

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#25

Post by scotty79 »

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…

Are you sure he didn't create copy of MySpace?

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#26

Post by id »

DangerousPie wrote: post #8
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.

Running Vkontakte in the US would get you into huge legal trouble, considering how many movies and music albums are hosted there without permission. And I think you would be required to share users’ personal data with US law enforcement agencies just as much.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#27

Post by jnbiche »

calcsam wrote: post #2

Here's to wishing Snowden had asked Putin about this, rather than giving him political cover to orchestrate it...

And lose literally his last place of refuge capable of withstanding U.S. demands in the world? If he pisses Russia off, he's either in a Russian jail (horrible) or in US hands (possibly equally horrible). Why do you want this? Has he not sacrificed enough of his life?

Almost everyone, Russians most of all, know that Russia conducts fearsome mass surveillance of its own population. It was Snowden's revelations about the capabilities and intentions of the U.S. that came as a big surprise to many, and so were most needed.

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#28

Post by RomanPushkin »

buildbro wrote: post #13
RomanPushkin wrote: post #10

PAVEL DUROV'S 7 REASONS TO STAY IN RUSSIA (12 March 2014) http://rusbase.com/news/author/benhopkins/not-going-anywhere...

That whole blog post stinks of propaganda

Link to russian version on Pavel's personal page: http://vk.com/id1?w=wall1_45616

Nobody was forcing him to write this. It is exactly what he thinks about Russia.

PS But sometimes people can change their opinion in a month :)

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#29

Post by 17Crash »

domdip wrote: post #19
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…

As far as business in Russia goes, this sounds like a fairly normal course of events. Almost every large company has someone Putin-connected at the top, and when the Kremlin wants more control that's how they exercise it. (Either that, or corrupt court judgments that directly change corporate control.) Don't be surprised if there are a rash of allegations of corruption, embezzlement, etc., against Durov. The sad thin…

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

- Winston Churchill

Re: Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia

#30

Post by aaronem »

GuiA wrote: post #16

In a dictatorship, if the ones holding power want to take control of an internet company holding data about the personal lives of hundreds of millions of people, they do so by ousting the CEO and taking control the hard way. In a democracy with a free market, if the ones holding power want to take control of an internet company which holds data about the personal lives of hundreds of millions of people, they do so by…

You're not wrong, precisely, but the former method has the virtues of simplicity, forthrightness, and the presentation of a salutary example to others who might find themselves in a similar position.

Also, people from the West have been telling Russians that Russia has a lot to learn at least since the fall of the Soviet regime, if not since the days of the tsars. Some who've given such advice have done so out of good intentions. Others did so with malice aforethought, and have brought about considerable grief in so doing, as for example during the post-Soviet interregnum, when Yeltsin let himself be swindled out of a huge fraction of his country's wealth to the enormous detriment of the Russian people -- I've seen estimates of premature and unnecessary deaths thus caused which range into the low to middle seven figures.

Part of the reason why Putin enjoys such wide approval in the nation he governs is because he's not particularly inclined to listen to Westerners bearing gifts, whatever their intentions in so doing may be.

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