Meanwhile, Boris Dobrodeyev, the company’s previous deputy chief executive, has assumed leadership of VKontakte. Dobrodeyev remained CEO until 2021, when parent firm Mail.ru — the Russian digital services operator that controlled the remaining 52% of Vkontakte — rebranded the entire company as VK. Vladimir Kiriyenko was appointed CEO shortly after Dobrodeyev’s resignation in December 2021.
Kiriyenko, 38, previously worked at Rostelecom, Russia’s state-owned telecoms company. Prior to that, he served as chairman of the boards of directors of a telecommunications company, a bank, and an investment company — a function of his father, Sergei Kiriyenko, who served as Russia’s prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and is now the Putin administration’s first deputy chief of staff. (Sergei Kiriyenko is also named on the elite sanctions list.)
Under the leadership of a regime insider like Vladimir Kiriyenko, it’s difficult to envisage VK hosting content critical of the Putin administration or taking any of the privacy stances taken by Durov’s Telegram.
