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Celebrated Russian Hacker Now In Exile
An anonymous reader writes: VKontakte is a Russian social network, more popular there than even Facebook. Its founder, Pavel Durov, was a celebrity for his entrepreneurial skills, much like Mark Zuckerberg elsewhere. But as Russia has cracked down on internet freedoms, 30-year-old Durov had to relinquish control of the social network. He eventually fled the country when the government pressured him to release data on Ukrainian protest leaders. He's now a sort of roving hacker, showing up where he's welcome and not staying too long. "Mr. Durov, known for his subversive wit and an all-black wardrobe that evokes Neo from the Matrix movies, is now a little-seen nomad, moving from country to country every few weeks with a small band of computer programmers. One day he is in Paris, another in Singapore." Durov said, "I'm very happy right now without any property anywhere. I consider myself a legal citizen of the world."
With Putin giving the US a black eye by harbouring Edward Snowden, maybe this guy will find sanctuary in the US? :)
One Ukrainian says to another:
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Run?
He's in Exile living well. I've thought of going there but plane fare is expensive to Exile and there's this long layover in Timbuktu.
It's even harder when you are on a Lamb. The TSA won't let you through security on the Lamb and let's not get into bording the plane.
When your net-worth is 7 figures at a minimum, that's a bit easier to do.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Yes, it is. That one police state is slightly less worse than another doesn't change that both are police states.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20...
The Russian Internet giant Mail.ru said on Tuesday that it had bought the remaining stake in Vkontakte, the country’s largest social network, that it did not already own for $1.47 billion.
Mail.ru is owned by Alisher B. Usmanov.
From http://qz.com/268023/this-puti... :
Usmanov is one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “oligarchs,” a group of businessmen with close ties to the Kremlin, and last year Putin awarded him Russia’s highest civilian award, the Order for Service to the Fatherland.
That ought to clear up who is running/owns VKontakte.
And what has Durov done that was traitorous or cowardly?
And for that matter, Snowden was a patriot, and far from a coward. A coward would have kept his mouth shut.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
He may consider himself a citizen of the world, but the people with guns do not. I don't see this ending well.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I'm not getting it, then. If the Kremlin now has its guy owning VKontakte, why would they give a shit about Durov? They wanted data on Ukrainian protest leaders, which they can now get from Mail.ru, so why would they care about him one way or another? The big reason to go after him would be that ostensibly, he has all that data, but if he doesn't and his (now ex) company has it, and would give it, then what's his value to Moscow?
Also, Ukrainian protest leaders means what? Pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass, right? If that's the case, it should be easy for Moscow to get their details, since they're supporting them. Why would they need a third party - Durov/VKontakte - to spill their guts for them?
If it means anti-Russian protesters in Ukraine, those guys are morons to put their data w/ a Russian organization, of all things. Doesn't FaceBook support Ukrainian, amongst other languages?
A rather pointless and misguided post and a list.
Trotsky was Stalin's own arch-enemy. It's very hard to think of who could possibly play such role to Putin's regime today. Berezovski was the last one, and he was a non-player since the end of 20th century. The other guy, Khodorkovky, the CEO of now dead Yukos, has already served a decade in prison and has been pardoned.
Litvinenko's killing in London was clearly a very public execution to send a message to major politically involved oligarchs in exile, such as Berezovski, who used to think he owns and runs the Kremlin in the 90s. Durov is a very small fry, and one out of hundreds. I can't imagine that FSB is possibly losing sleep over him.