I forgot to ask in the first post - is there any truth to his claims that VKontakte is fully monitored by the Russian state - like Facebook is just routinely stored and monitored by the NSA in the US?

What do you think? I am hoping that Russia is a bit better than the US in this respect.

Did Durov actually say that, or are they putting words in his mouth and trying to spin this up to somehing it's not?

Or do you think he has inside info about this?

Usmanov - what a creep! I read his Wiki page in English. Apparently he was a criminal already in 1981 and it's been escalating ever since. I suppose he couldn't care less about the people's personal data. In three wildly differing political climates between then and now, he manages to weasle his way to the top in each one! I bet thousands of Russians are voting Communist purely because of people like this. My perception of him is that he's nothing but an opportunist and thief, but a clever one. Anyone who gets that rich, that fast without inventing anything or doing honest work, is a crook.