The Saint Petersburg home of Russian social network VKontakte founder Pavel Durov was raided by police yesterday (Wednesday) as investigations into allegations of violence against a police officer continue.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) confirmed investigations at Durov’s home after he disobeyed orders to stop at the command of a police officer earlier this month.
The officer was injured with “bruises and grazes” in the incident on April 5, leading to charges of violence against an official,The Raw Story reported.
Rarely addressing the public other than through social media, Durov wrote on VKontakte: “When you drive over a policeman, it’s very important to drive back and forward a few times to squeeze out all the soft parts.”
However, Georgy Lobushkin, spokesman at VKontakte, denied Durov had injured the officer.
If Durov is found guilty of these accusations, he will face five years in prison.
This is not the first charge against him, as he also stands to answer a piracy indictment over the publication of copyrighted material on his social network site since 2011.
He refused to delete the illegal material, despite security service orders.
In 2012, he caused a Twitter outrage among Russian tweeters, claiming Stalin’s triumph over Hitler in World War Two strengthened the communist leader’s grip over the Soviet nation.
The 28-year-old social network entrepreneur is often compared to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Founded in 2006, VKontakte has 200 million members and is more popular than Facebook in Russia.
Members include Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and Spanish pop star Enrique Iglesias, who recently created profiles on the network.
