Telegram founder Pavel Durov suspected that he was poisoned by a “weird neighbor” in 2018 during an assassination attempt that rendered him unable to stroll for weeks.
The billionaire CEO stored the stunning revelation a secret for almost a decade because he was in the course of of developing a blockchain to be suitable with his messaging website, and feared any phrase of his health would cause issues.
“That was the only instant in my life that I thought I was dying,” Durov advised podcaster Lex Fridman on Monday.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov seems on the Lex Fridman Podcast on Sept. 30, 2025. Lex Clips / YouTube
Durov said he and his older brother were developing the digital ledger through the project TON, and raised over $1.7 billion in three months and Telegram had been banned in Russia and Iran when he was allegedly poisoned.
The 40-year-old Russian social media boss had arrived back at his rented townhouse, where he lived alone, when he discovered something his “weird neighbor” had left him at the door.
“One hour after, when I was already in my bed, I felt very bad. I felt pain all over my body,” he said. “I tried to get up and go to the bathroom. But while I was going there, I felt the functions of my body started to switch off.”
He claimed he lost his eyesight and listening to before he started having hassle respiratory.
“Everything accompanied by very acute pain,” Durov said. “Heart, stomach, all blood vessels. It’s difficult to explain, but one thing I was certain about was, ‘yeah, this is it.’”
Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 23, 2016. REUTERS
A demonstrator holds up an image of Pavel Durov during a protest in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on May 1, 2018. AFP via Getty Images
Durov, who claimed to have good health, believed he was dying as he was left immobilized.
“I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see anything, was very painful. I thought it was over,” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, I had a good life. Managed to accomplish a few things. Then I collapsed on the floor.”
He awoke on the ground the next day, but said he couldn’t stand up because he felt “super weak” and found that his blood vessels all over his physique were “broken.”
“Something like this never happened to me,” he said. “I couldn’t walk for two weeks after.”
Durov remained inside his home and was silent about his medical emergency, holding his workforce out of the loop because he didn’t need them to fear.
The tech entrepreneur co-founded the Russian social networking website VK in 2006 before leaving and beginning up the messaging app Telegram in 2013.
Telegram has been used by both sides of the Russia-Ukraine War, with officers sending time-sensitive messages out to residents and important data to the entrance traces.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky makes use of the messaging app to ship updates to the Ukrainian residents.
The Telegram icon seems on a smartphone in Frankfurt, Germany on April 17, 2018. EPA
Pavel Durov co-founded the Russian social networking website VK in 2006 before leaving and beginning up the messaging app Telegram in 2013. @durov/Instagram
His work has been focused by world governments making an attempt to impose restrictions on the content material in an attack on free speech.
In August 2024, he was arrested after stepping off a aircraft in France and charged in the nation’s investigation into Telegram’s illicit actions.
Law enforcement alleged Telegram’s lack of moderation and the instruments it gives, such as cryptocurrencies, make it complicit in world drug trafficking, pedophilia and fraud.
Durov was arrested on a search warrant once he stepped onto French soil.
He was charged with 12 counts in the case and positioned on a judicial supervision, unable to depart France for months.
The billionaire renegotiated his release circumstances in March and is eligible to depart the nation for up to two weeks.
A photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin is crossed out during a protest for Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny on May 5, 2018 AFP via Getty Images
Durov claimed his alleged poisoning made him view life with additional gratitude for his on a regular basis schedule.
“If anything, I felt even more free after that,” he said. “After you survive something like this, you feel like you’re living on bonus time. In a way, you died a long time ago and every new day you get is a gift.”
Investigative reporter Christo Grozev believes Durov confirmed all the indicators of a nerve-agent poisoning, that occurred around the same time as the tried assassination of Sergei Skripal.
The Russian navy officer and British double agent was in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2018 with his daughter when they were poisoned by high-ranking Russian navy officers.
Experts believe Soviet Union-based nerve agent A-234 was used on the father-daughter duo, who survived the attack.