The Russian crypto influencer who accompanied Telegram boss Pavel Durov on a series of lavish trips before his arrest in Paris has reportedly given away his location.
Yulia Vavilova, also known as Juli and believed to be 24 years old, is a self-proclaimed “crypto coach” and video game streamer.
Like Durov, she was born in Russia and is believed to live in Dubai, where she lives a jet-set lifestyle and shares photos of her travels.
Her Instagram has been filled with photos lately from visits to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and most recently Azerbaijan.
Durov was in each country at the same time and posted similar or even identical photos and videos to Vavilova, including from a gorge, at a shooting range, and apparently in the same car.
While Vavilova appeared to avoid including Durov in the photos she shared with her 26,000 followers, the photos he shared from the trip alongside hers indicate they were in the same locations — and reveal their journey through Central Asia.
Now she appears to have disappeared without a trace since arriving in Paris with the Telegram boss. French police detained her as he stepped out of his Embraer Legacy 600 private jet as part of an investigation into criminal activity on his platform.
In Kyrgyzstan, Durov is said to have taken her to the mountains in an eight-seater helicopter, insisting that his presence in the country would remain confidential.
A video shows her sitting next to Durov at the fashionable Shore House Baku restaurant on the Caspian Sea, revealed by Russian news outlet SHOT
The Dubai-based streamer is known as Yulia – or Juli – Vavilova, 24, but this is reportedly not her real surname
Pavel Durov’s Instagram is full of photos and videos showing off his body
Vavilova’s social media posts have reportedly sparked speculation within the crypto community that she may have inadvertently led to authorities tracking them down when they landed in Paris on Saturday night.
Photos have emerged of a blonde woman, who appears to be Vavilova, having breakfast with Durov and his colleagues in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, before they fly to Paris.
She is sitting next to Durov at the trendy Shore House Baku restaurant on the Caspian Sea, according to video footage released by Russian news outlet SHOT.
It is also believed that the two were together at a shooting range in Azerbaijan before leaving for France. There is video footage showing them from behind.
It is unclear whether Vavilova was detained by French authorities along with Durov. Reports say the tech mogul was accompanied by “an assistant and a bodyguard” at his arrest.
Baptiste Robert, a French cybersecurity expert and founder of the startup Predicta Lab, claimed on X that the assistant was in fact Vavilova.
Durov and Vavilova separately shared photos of themselves during their trip on Telegram and Instagram
Durov and Vavilova share an identical photo of a gorge – though he said it was in Kazakhstan, while she tagged the location as Uzbekistan
Vavilova shared photos from her trip with her Instagram followers, including some photos that were identical to Durov’s
Vavilova’s family in Russia has reportedly been unable to reach her, fueling speculation that she has been arrested or is in hiding.
It is reported that the relationship between Durov and Vavilova was known in certain circles in Dubai.
The photos she posted showed a man’s hands and feet and she used the word “we” in her travel description, for example: “We got lost in a forest.”
She is seen from behind in a photo just before his plane leaves Baku for Paris, and she also shows her own photos on what is believed to be his plane.
She also posted an Instagram story about a private jet, captioned, “New destination unlocked… 3 hours from Kazakhstan,” before asking her followers to guess where she was in a poll titled “Where are we?”
Vavilova previously revealed on Twitch, a streaming site used by gamers, that she had used cryptocurrency to evade sanctions imposed on Russia following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, with ties to the Russian security services, reported: ‘Yulia Vavilova and Pavel Durov did not exactly keep their relationship a secret, nor the fact that they planned to visit France after a tour of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.’
In Kyrgyzstan, Durov is said to have taken her to the mountains in an eight-seater helicopter, insisting that his presence in the country remain secret.
What is known is that the highly educated Vavilova describes herself as a gamer, streamer and crypto investor and that she runs a cryptocurrency channel in Arabic, a language she speaks fluently.
Besides Russian, she also speaks fluent English and Spanish.
The “crypto coach” is from Moscow, but has been living in Dubai for about two years. Durov has been using it as his base of operations lately, after leading an itinerant existence since 2014, when he left his home country under pressure from the Putin regime to give his security services access to Telegram.
Vavilova’s family in Russia has reportedly been unable to reach her, fueling speculation whether she has been arrested or is in hiding.
Her mother Ekaterina made it clear that she had not heard from her daughter since the plane landed in Paris.
“We get all the news through the media,” she told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
“Our phones are ringing off the hook, but only journalists are calling. Understand our position.”
She told news outlet BAZA that she was not answering her phone.
According to the newspaper, Yulia started using the name Vavilova when she went to Dubai.
Russian influencer Guseyn Gasanov, 30, was very successful at the breakfast in Baku and the helicopter flight to Kyrgyzstan.
Vavilova has about 45,000 followers on various platforms, including Telegram, and is a successful businesswoman.
It is still unclear why Durov flew to Paris with Vavilova, knowing he could be arrested there.
It is said that Yulia started using the name Vavilova when she went to Dubai
The tech mogul behind the messaging app, who lives in self-imposed exile from his native Russia, is said to have been aware of a possible French criminal investigation.
He was detained at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday night, less than a week after Vladimir Putin abruptly refused to meet him when both men were in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, where a meeting had reportedly been brokered.
Instead, the Kremlin last week stepped up efforts to block or slow down Telegram in Russia.
Durov founded the so-called Russian Facebook, VK, and also the messenger Telegram, which is widely used for communication between both sides in the Ukrainian war. It is worth £13.6 billion.
He is expected to be investigated over allegations that Telegram is complicit in drug trafficking, child pornography and fraud, due to a lack of moderation controls and its refusal to cooperate with French law enforcement.
His Telegram empire is worth around £23.5 billion and he has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.
He recently announced that as a sperm donor he is the father of more than 100 children.
A pre-arrest video, likely filmed by Vavilova, shows him driving freely around Kazakhstan, shortly before travelling to Azerbaijan and then leaving for Paris.
The Kremlin said today: “We do not know exactly what Durov is accused of, we have not yet received any official statements.
“Let’s wait until the charges are made public, if they are. Then we can draw some preliminary conclusions.”
Russia has demanded consular access to Durov, TASS reports, but he is a French citizen and it is unlikely that this will be granted.