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The general director of VKontakte Pavel Durov was dismissed from his post. This was reported by RBC with reference to the executive director of the social network Dmitry Sergeyev.

According to Sergeev, on March 21, Durov wrote a letter of resignation. On April 1, he announced this publicly , but two days later he disavoized his message , calling him an Aprilian joke. Nevertheless, Sergeev added, Durov did not withdraw a statement of departure. “The only possible legitimate decision in this connection is the satisfaction of this statement,” concluded the top manager. He also emphasized that "in the conditions of a joint -stock conflict, the company is simply obliged to act strictly within the framework of legal norms."

At the same time, Sergeyev did not rule out that Durov, by agreement with the shareholders, would be proposed the position of "chief architect of the network". This, the top manager noted, would be a "best solution."

Later, Durov noticed that he really submitted an application for care, but on April 3 he recalled it. The review of the application, he added, was publicly accepted, but later the board of directors found that this document was drawn up "not by all the rules." The businessman added that the shareholders did not notify him of his decision - he learned about the dismissal from the press.

“Thus, today VKontakte is under the full control of Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov,” concluded Durov.

The businessman connected his dismissal with his two posts published on a personal VK page on April 16. In them , he said that he refused to fulfill the requirement of the authorities to close the opposition communities . “Neither I nor my team are going to carry out political censorship,” Durov wrote. “We will not remove either the anti -corruption community of Navalny, nor hundreds of other communities, the blocking of which is required from us.”

The businessman said that on March 13, the Prosecutor General demanded to close the group of supporters of Alexei Navalny under the threat of VKontakte blocking. “I did not close this group in December 2011 and, of course, did not close now,” Durov remarked. During this time, the creator of the social network "was pressure from different sides." On March 13, the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office blocked the Blog of the Podgy in Livejournal and the opposition sites “Faces”, Kasparov.ru and the daily magazine.

Durov also wrote that in December 2013, the FSB demanded that the VKontakte administration issue the personal data of the organizers of the Euromaidan groups. “Our answer was and remains a categorical refusal: the jurisdiction of Russia does not apply to Ukrainian users,” the businessman noted. “The issuance of personal data of Ukrainians to the Russian authorities would be not only a violation of the law, but also the betrayal of all those millions of residents of Ukraine who trusted us.”

Durov also said that the change of owners of VKontakte is connected precisely with his rejection of political censorship. “In the process, I had to sacrifice many, including my share of VKontakte,” he wrote. “But I do not regret anything: the protection of personal data of people is worth this and much more. Since December 2013, I have no property, but I have something more important - pure conscience and ideals that I am ready to protect.”

Durov is trying to challenge in court the ransom of the social network shares with the United Capital Partners fund. In turn, UCP disputes the rights to the Telegram messenger, created by Paul and Nikolai Durov.

The main share of VKontakte shares (39.99 percent) belongs to Mail.ru Group Alisher Usmanov. In January, Durov sold his share to the head of Megafon and the co -owner of the media holding Ywwwan Ivan Tavrin. Thus, 52 percent of the social network shares close to Usmanov received structures.

Messages about Durov's departure from the post of general director of VKontakte have repeatedly appeared in the media since the end of 2013.