<story><title>Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia</title><url>http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/vkontakte-founder-flees-russia-claims-persecution/498715.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>broflosup</author><text>He made $260 million in Russia creating a copy of Facebook. He sold his shares and resigned.&lt;p&gt;But wait, he didn&amp;#x27;t _really_ resign. No, it was all an April fools joke! The investors didn&amp;#x27;t buy it and fired him.&lt;p&gt;He claims the site is now under the control of Kremlin because one of its shareholders is Alisher Usmanov, an alleged ally of Putin. Yet, that guy was a shareholder for awhile now and Durov never complained about him.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Sounds like someone is trying to stay relevant by creating controversy and generating hype for a new messaging system that&amp;#x27;s supposed to protect you from government&amp;#x27;s eyes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Vkontakte Founder Flees Russia</title><url>http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/vkontakte-founder-flees-russia-claims-persecution/498715.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>acqq</author><text>Imagine Zuckerberg selling his Facebook shares, then claiming to flee from USA for not willing to give the data from the Facebook to the FBI. Which of course Facebook (just like any other competitor like Google and Microsoft) gives since it&amp;#x27;s all regulated by the law:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/about/government_requests&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.facebook.com&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;government_requests&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Disclaimer: I don&amp;#x27;t know how much Durov actually sold. Any additional info welcome.</text></comment>