Juli Vavilova, 24, who is also a video game streamer, is at the center of online speculation after she shared a series of glam pics while apparently traveling with Durov to Azerbaijan last week, according to matching social media posts highlighted by French privacy data researcher Baptiste Robert and others.
Online observers suggest those posts may have given away details about the exiled Russian mogul’s movements prior to his arrest. He was taken into custody after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday.
Dubai influencer Juli Vavilova had posted about her recent glamorous trips across the Middle East that appeared to coincide with Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s trips. X/@fs0c131y The Telegram co-founder was arrested after landing in Paris on Saturday as part of an investigation into his company. Tucker Carlson / YouTube
“It’s complicated to say if her posts played a direct role in his arrest, but if you were following her on social media, you could easily track Durov’s movements,” Robert told The Post.
Vavilova’s family is now telling the AFP news agency that they have not been able to get in touch with her since Durov’s arrest.
Durov’s arrest has outraged advocates for free speech in tech, including X owner Elon Musk. They claim he was targeted for refusing to give governments the keys to his encrypted app.
Vavilova’s relationship with Durov remains unclear, but her social media accounts are filled with photos and videos of her traveling across the Middle East within the same time frame as the Telegram CEO’s known trips to those places.
Robert put together a compilation of such posts on X, including videos of the two of them together in Uzbekistan taken earlier in the summer by a Russian blogger.
Vavilova posted an image of herself in Uzbekistan, with the field nearly identical to one that Durov posted around the same time. Juli Vavilova/TikTok
Another post seems to show Vavilova in the passenger seat of the car Durov was driving in Azerbaijan on Aug. 21, with the two posting images of themselves at the same shooting range and later in the same hotel in the nation’s capital.
It’s unknown how or when Vavilova and Durov met, but both of them live in Dubai, where Durov based Telegram after fleeing Russia 2014 when he refused to hand over encrypted data to the Kremlin.
Durov was neither in hiding nor on the run, with the dual-French citizen regularly making trips to Europe, his company said in a statement.
Vavilova’s posts would theoretically allow anyone to track the billionaire’s movements, according to online privacy experts. Juli Vavilova/TikTok
French authorities had issued a search warrant for Durov as a part of the Interior Ministry’s investigation into charges of crimes against minors.
His arrest has sparked international intrigue and questions around why exactly he was arrested.
French officials allege Durov is complicit with global drug trafficking, pedophilia and fraud that run rampant on Telegram due to lack of moderation and the tools it offers, including cryptocurrencies.
“At the heart of the case is the absence of moderation and cooperation on the part of the platform,” Jean-Michel Bernigaud, secretary general of France’s Ofmin police agency said in a statement.
Durov stands accused of allowing criminals to run rampant on his platform, which emphasizes users’ privacy above all. Corbis via Getty Images
His relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime also remains unclear. Telegram was blocked in Russia in 2018, but then permitted again two years later and it is a major social media platform for Russian officials as well as the Russian military, according to the BBC .
Online rumors speculated — without evidence — that Durov’s Azerbaijan visit was so that he could meet with Putin, a claim the Kremlin denies.
It is also unclear why Durov would return to Paris on his private plane when the warrant is only valid if he steps on French soil, as authorities would be alerted to his landing.
Representatives for the billionaire could not be immediately reached for comment.
Telegram was originally based in Russia before Durov left in 2014, with the company now settled in Dubai. Getty Images
Telegram has also drawn criticism from many governments around the globe for allowing militants and organized criminals to discreetly communicate on the app, which emphasizes user privacy above all.
Durov, who Forbes estimates is worth about $15.5 billion, has said repeatedly that Telegram is a neutral social media platform and that he fled Russia to avoid taking orders from Moscow.
Russia notably began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the company refused to comply with a court order to give the state access to its users’ data, with the government eventually lifting the ban in 2020.
French officials said Durov will be held for at least two more days, but the exact charges being levied against him remain unclear — much to the dismay of Durov’s supporters who have slammed the arrest as an attack on freedom of speech.
Reacting to the arrest on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Durov’s arrest was “not a political decision at all.”
“It is up to the justice system, in total independence, to enforce the law,” Macron said.
With Post wires
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