The US has sanctioned the head of Russia’s largest social network

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Biden administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian banks, energy and infrastructure companies, and a number of individual Russian elites on Thursday, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The US Department of the Treasury gave the full list of entities that had been hit with sanctions.

The CEO of the parent company of Russia's biggest social network is among the individuals who have been blacklisted. One of the country's most powerful tech executives can't do business with any US entity because of his work with the VK group.

The dominant social media platform in Russia is called VK, and it does not operate on the global scale of Facebook. It claims to have around 70 million monthly active users, making it roughly a quarter of the size of Twitter, and the majority of these accounts post in Russian from within Russian geographic borders.

Kiriyenko's association with the company only began in 2021. His leadership of the company is the final twist in a saga that has seen the social network steered away from a platform committed to privacy and free expression, into one more likely to tow Putin's party line.

The creator of Vkontakte was just 22 years old at the time. It was 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884

The Russian government was to blame for Durov's ousting, he said at the time. They can't stand me.

After fleeing Russia, theentrepreneur began to focus on a new project: the messaging app Telegram. Durov's experience of censorship in Russia drove Telegram to have a more robust attitude to privacy and free expression.

Durov first rejected requests from French authorities, and later was pressured by Russia's security service to put a back door into the encryption that would allow governments to eavesdrop. Telegram was ordered to be blocked by Russian telecoms companies. The Russian government gave up in 2020 and it was already being used as an official communication channel by many government agencies. It has been adopted as a tool for both personal and official communications in neighboring Ukraine.

Boris Dobrodeyev was the deputy chief executive of the company. The CEO position was held by Dobrodeyev until the restructure of the parent company Mail.ru brought the entire company under the VK brand. The new CEO was appointed in December of 2021.

Kiriyenko is a senior executive at the national telecommunications operator of Russia. His status as the son of Sergei Kiriyenko, the former prime minister of Russia under Boris Yeltsin, made him the first deputy chief of staff. Kiriyenko is listed under the elite sanctions list.

Under the leadership of a regime insider like Vladimir Kiriyenko, it's hard to imagine that VK would host content critical of the Putin government, or take any of the stands for privacy that Durov's Telegram has been willing to adopt.