Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, which has more than 700 million monthly active users worldwide. Telegram, which is free to use, competes with messaging apps like Facebook's WhatsApp. Durov left Russia after he refused to cooperate with the Russian secret service and provide encrypted data of his first social network's users. Durov, who became a French citizen in 2021, moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017. Since the Ukraine war began, Telegram has become a critical source of information, and plenty of disinformation too, related to the conflict.