Durov's Knot: Wartime Telegram and its beneficiaries
The unexpected detention of Pavel Durov in Paris became one of the most high-profile events of August, sparking a storm of discussions in leading global media, as well as in Russian-language media and the blogosphere. Durov is the creator of Russia's second-largest social network, VKontakte, which was taken from him by the Kremlin 10 years ago, and Telegram, the third-largest, which has now grown into a global platform with nearly a billion users worldwide.