Who is Juli Vavilova, Gamer, Crypto Coach Linked To Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s Arrest?

A woman who goes by the Juli Vavilova was detained when French police arrested Pavel Durov, CEO of the widely-used messaging app Telegram, last Saturday. The woman’s involvement, whom many on the internet have termed as ‘mysterious’ has led many to speculate if it was her videos and social media posts that led to Durov’s arrest.

France held the Russian-born founder of Telegram Pavel Durov in custody for a second day of questioning Monday over alleged offences related to the popular but controversial messaging app, which insisted he had “nothing to hide”. He is being accused of failing to stop various kinds of criminality on his platform.

Durov had arrived in Paris from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was planning to have dinner in the French capital, a source close to the case told news agency AFP.

He was accompanied by a bodyguard and a personal assistant who always accompany him, the person mentioned above said.

There are speculations that Vavilova, a 24-year-old crypto coach and social media personality, based out of Dubai, played a key role in the arrest.

Vavilova has been spotted with Pavel on multiple occasions in the days leading up to his arrest. The duo has travelled to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan before travelling to France and getting nabbed by law enforcement authorities after flying into Le Bourget airport outside Paris.

Internet sleuths have pointed out that Vavilova shared photos of their trips on her Instagram and speculated that she could have led the authorities to them.

A source close to the case expressed surprise while speaking to AFP that Durov had flown to France with a warrant against him. “Perhaps he had a feeling of impunity,” the person said.

Baptiste Robert, the CEO of Predicta Lab, a website that claims to fight online misinformation, reposted a video shared by Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) account Amir Intel, where Vavilova is seen thanking her friends help her bypass Russian sanctions by taking payment in cryptocurrency.

He also said that it is hard to assume if Vavilova and Durov were dating.

They had posted photos from the same locations before his arrest. Durov had posted pictures of him driving a racing car and practicing shooting and hours later Vavilova had posted videos from the same location and doing the same activities on her Instagram account.

“When Russia went under sanctions, my smart friends, I’m really glad that I have my smart friends around me who educate me about crypto, who gives me opportunities, and other stuff. He just told me, the same day, send all the crypto, to trust the wallet,” she could he heard saying to her followers on a livestream.