Irina Bolgar, who calls herself the mother of three children of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, claims on her Instagram page* that a Swiss court, based on her claim, has deprived the businessman of his parental rights.
The woman said that in December 2022, Durov allegedly gave her an ultimatum “with the aim of forcing” her to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but at the same time “he did not invite her to move in with him.”
After receiving a refusal, the businessman, according to Bolgar, blocked all the bank cards that she used with his permission and stopped paying bills, including for her children’s education, travel and medical services.
In addition, according to Irina, Durov allegedly tried to deprive them and their children of “the opportunity to remain in Europe” by refusing to give written consent to extend their current immigration documents and issue new ones.
Because of this, Bolgar writes, she had to file a lawsuit. “The Tribunal for the Protection of Children and Adults initiated an investigation conducted by the Geneva guardianship authorities, as a result of which it decided to deprive Durov of parental rights in relation to our three children,” the woman said.
“He was afraid of divorce”: the mother of Durov’s children spoke about the reasons for his refusal to marry
The day before, on August 28, it became known that in March 2023, Bolgar filed two lawsuits against Durov – she complained about physical violence against her youngest son on his part and demanded sole custody of the child. According to Forbes, these lawsuits were filed in court several months after Bolgar’s statement about Durov’s refusal to pay her alimony – €150 thousand ($167.5 thousand) per month.
Irina Bolgar recently provided Forbes with several documents confirming that Durov is the father of her three children, including photos of him with them, copies of birth certificates, a written acknowledgement of paternity, and notarized translations of these papers into French and English.
Pavel Durov himself is currently under “judicial supervision” in France, where he is prohibited from leaving due to the investigation into the case against Telegram. In order to be released from custody, the businessman had to pay bail in the amount of 5 million euros.
Paris prosecutor charges Telegram creator with:
– conspiracy to operate an online platform for the purpose of carrying out illegal transactions as part of an organized group;
— refusal to provide, at the request of authorized bodies, information or documents that are necessary for wiretapping permitted by law;
— complicity in offenses in the form of providing access to data for users associated with fraudulent schemes distributing child pornography, as well as carrying out illegal drug trafficking;
— laundering of funds resulting from crimes or offenses committed by an organized group;
— provision of cryptological services without declaration of conformity;
— supply and import of crypto-instruments that do not perform authentication and privacy control functions without prior declaration.
According to Politico, Durov’s brother Nikolai, whom the French press calls the “co-founder” of Telegram, has also been put on the wanted list, recalling that he and Pavel worked together on the social network VKontakte.
* Meta’s activities to distribute the social network Instagram in Russia have been deemed extremist and banned
