THE SUN
A RUSSIAN billionaire has fathered 100 children worldwide because it was his “civic duty”.
Pavel Durov, branded Putin’s enemy, has amassed £13.6billion fortune for inventing Russian social media apps.
The 39-year-old founded the so-called Russian Facebook – called VK – as well as one of the fastest growing messengers, Telegram.
The Russian-born entrepreneur might be joining Tesla founder Elon Musk in combating the alleged global de-population.
The unmarried billionaire has now made a shocking revelation that he has fathered over 100 kids around the globe.
In a Telegram post, he wrote: “I was just told that I have over 100 biological kids.
“How is this possible for a guy who has never been married and prefers to live alone?”
He then went on to explain that he’d become a prolific sperm donor who helped over a hundred couples in 12 countries to conceive.
Durov said he was prompted to sign up for sperm donation 15 years ago when his friend approached him with a “weird request”.
The tech mogul continued: “He and his wife couldn’t have kids due to a fertility issue and asked me to donate sperm at a clinic for them to have a baby.
“I laughed my ass off before realising he was dead serious.”
He was reportedly told by clinic bosses that there was a shortage of “high quality donor material” and it was his “duty” to donate sperm anonymously.
“This sounded crazy enough to get me to sign up for sperm donation,” he said.
“The shortage of healthy sperm has become an increasingly serious issue worldwide, and I’m proud that I did my part to help alleviate it.”
Durov added that he ceased being a donor years ago but his frozen sperm is still accessible for anonymous use from at least one IVF clinic.
It is unclear if his children might claim later to be heirs to his wealth.
PAVEL Durov is a well-known Emirati entrepreneur of Russian descent who founded the apps Telegram and VK.
His estimated net worth as of September 29, 2022, is £13.6 billion.
Forbes named him the wealthiest foreigner in the United Arab Emirates in 2022.
In August 2021, Durov obtained French citizenship and presently holds EU citizenship.
A significant portion of Durov’s wealth originates from Telegram, a £23.5 billion company with 900 million active users.
Along with his brother Nikolai, the software entrepreneur cofounded the encrypted messaging platform Telegram in 2013.
Before Telegram, Durov was known as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg for founding a Russian-version of Facebook, called VK.
The VK was founded by Durov in 2006, and in 2015, he sold a 12% share for $300 million.
However, political difficulties also arose, namely when Durov turned down requests from the Kremlin to view the VK profiles of prominent Ukrainian demonstrators.
According to Durov, he lost his job as CEO of VK in April 2014 after state-sponsored organisations took over the network.
In 2014, a SWAT team showed up at Durov’s house, forcing him to flee Moscow, the Times reported.
But the billionaire intends to open-source his DNA so that his biological offspring can more easily locate one another.
“Of course, there are risk, but I don’t regret having been a donor.”
He continued: “I also want to help destigmatize the whole notion of sperm donation and incentivise more healthy men to do it, so that families struggling to have kids can enjoy more options.
“Defy convention — redefine the norm.”
Up until now, the tech billionaire is known to have had a daughter and son with ex-partner Daria Bondarenko, based in Barcelona.
Although the children’s identities are unknown, Forbes Russia named them as some of the richest heirs in the nation in 2021.
Durov was forced out of Russia following Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Crimea and the Ukrainian Donbas region in 2014.
The so-called Russian Mark Zuckerberg rejected Moscow’s “unlawful” demands to hand over personal data from VK of pro-Ukrainian protesters.
He was effectively ousted from this major social media platform which was taken over by pro-Putin factions.
Durov currently resides in the United Arab Emirates and still owns Telegram, which is worth a staggering £23.5billion.
In 2023, Telegram was the most popular platform in Russia with up to 49 million users, accounting for 40% of the country’s internet users.
Durov was quoted by TechCrunch in 2014 as saying: “I don’t have any business in Russia and have no plans to return there.
“I have no Russian citizenship anymore.”
