Resignations from social network VK in wake of CEO’s sacking

Between eight and nine developers at Russian social networking site VK resigned from the company this morning, just days after the dismissal of the site’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov. The unexpected departure of nearly half of VK’s developers means there are now only ten people working in the development team at VK; they “are also looking at the door”, according to a source cited by Izvestia. Citing unhappiness at the company’s new leadership as the motivation for their resignation, the departing staff have told journalists of their plans to work on a new social networking site to be headed by Durov, who has recently fled Russia claiming persecution.

Last week Durov wrote on his Facebook page that he and 12 engineers who were instrumental in creating VK are setting up a temporary base in central Europe in order to develop his latest project — a mobile social network. The wave of staff to have left the troubled tech company have expressed an interest in joining Durov’s new project, which will be established in a country “that will allow us to develop our projects with privacy and freedom of speech in mind”, according to a post on Durov’s Facebook page. Durov has since acquired citizenship in the small Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis.

Durov’s dismissal last week took place amid unusual circumstances and came on the heels of the entrepreneur’s unexpected resignation U-turn earlier this month. Claiming that his original resignation, made on 1 April, was an April Fool’s joke, Durov stated his desire to stay on as CEO of VK. However, he was ultimately dismissed by the company’s Kremlin-friendly shareholders Alisher Usmanov and Igor Sechin, who claimed that his notification to remain CEO of VK was not properly filed. Noted for his advocacy of free speech, Durov has publically linked his removal from the company with his refusal to shut down the presence on VK of an anti-corruption group run by opposition activist Alexei Navalny on the website.

Durov’s new social networking site is set to launch in autumn this year.