Goodbye, Pavel Durov. Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte is now in the hands of Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov is a metals tycoon who expanded into tech via his company Mail.ru, and Sechin is the leader of the hardline silovik faction that backs Putin, is CEO of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, and is believed to be one of the Russian president’s closest advisors.

Here’s a statement from Pavel Durov, who was fired from his position as CEO of the 100 million member social network by the board a few days ago.

Judging by the news, as a result of my public renunciation last week, today I was fired as general director of VKontakte. It’s interesting that the shareholders didn’t have the bravery to do this directly, and that I learned about my firing from the press.

It is reported that today the board of directors of VKontakte * suddenly * found that a review of my statement of resignation from the post of general director on April 3 (which they publicly accepted before this), turned out to have been filled out “not according to all the rules,” so I am automatically fired. As far as I understand, this opaque position is held by all the shareholders.

In this way, today VKontakte goes under the complete control of Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov. Probably, in the Russian context, something like this was inevitable, but I’m happy we lasted seven and a half years. We did a lot. And part of what’s been done can’t be turned back.

Durov was likely fired because of his recent refusals to shut down groups on the site related to opposition leader Alexey Navalny and to anti-government protests in Ukraine.

[Source : BuzzFeed]