Today Durov appears relieved.



"Right now I can live and work wherever I want," he says, seemingly relishing his new-found freedom. "I'm in a situation where I can determine my own future."

His secure messaging app Telegram, which is free and carries no ads, has become immensely popular. So far, Telegram has about 50 million users, most of them outside Russia, though it’s clear some inside the Kremlin do use the app, including Putin's official spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov. (Peskov declined to speak about why he uses the app.)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the U.S.-based digital rights group, gave Telegram's "secret chats" function seven out of seven on its secure messaging scorecard.

Durov insists there are no outside investors involved in Telegram – and there never will be. He has learned his lesson from VKontakte.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities continue their crackdown on freedom online. Lawmakers pushed through a bill requiring Internet companies that keep personal data on Russian citizens to store it within the country's borders. The Kremlin has also said it’s considering the creation of a ‘kill switch’ to unplug the country from the Internet "in case of an emergency."

Last December, the Russian authorities ordered Facebook to block a protest page related to Navalny – and the American company complied with the government's request, blocking access for users in Russia.

Durov tweeted that "Facebook has no guts and no principles."

For his own part, he says, "I will never comply with such a request from any government."