Recently, there have been many rumors flying around about Telegram, and now the founder Pavel Durov has personally come out to clarify.

He explicitly stated that Telegram has no connection whatsoever with Russia in terms of capital structure. In the latest round of financing, the $1.7 billion bonds issued do not include any Russian investors. This is very important because many people have misconceptions about this.

Speaking of bonds, by the way, the batch of old bonds issued in 2021 has been mostly paid off, so there's no need to worry about any hidden risks — it's really not an issue.

There's also a common point of confusion: bondholders ≠ shareholders. Their nature is completely different. Holding bonds is a borrowing relationship and has no direct relation to equity. Pavel emphasized that Telegram's current equity structure is very clear.

In short, the source of capital is very clean, and the financing channels are very healthy. For a global communication app, this kind of transparency and independence is quite important.