Telegram team left Russia and looking for a country to work from

Citation from a Facebook post by Pavel Durov (founder of vk.com and Telegram), for those who don&#x27;t want to open Facebook:<p>---<p>As you probably know, I am out of Russia. Me and my team of 12 engineers have a temporary HQ in Central Europe, and we are now looking for a permanent base to work from. We are choosing a new home, a country that will allow us to develop our projects with privacy and freedom of speech in mind.<p>Our team includes 6 ACM champions and 6 winners of other programming contests. These guys made it possible for Telegram Messenger to gather 40 million registered users worldwide just within 8 months after its launch. Several members of this team, including my brother, were crucial in making VKontakte what it is today — the only social network that defeated Facebook in an open local market. We are now going to build our next project, a mobile social network.<p>What country or city do you think would suit us best? Please feel free to comment below. To give you an idea of our preferences, we dislike bureaucracy, police states, big governments, wars, socialism and excessive regulation. We like freedoms, strong judicial systems, small governments, free markets, neutrality and civil rights.<p>P.S. If you happen to represent a government that meets our criteria, you are welcome to share ideas with me at durov2016@gmail.com.

I&#x27;d recommend Berlin or Israel. The latter I&#x27;m very surprised would make my list but only under these special circumstances.<p>ISRAEL: It is by far the most disgustingly capitalistic country I&#x27;ve ever lived in but the VK crew may find this to their benefit. They will also find a nice and strong Russian community in Israel and a large pool of talent to pull from. What they will not find there is any sort of non-commercial activity (non-edu research, hacker spaces, fringe technical movement of any type) nor will they find a government interested in free speech. And they will have to turn a blind eye to all the shit their tax dollars will be put toward.<p>BERLIN: If you want free speech then definitely go to Berlin. Germanys conservative government comes off more liberal than the US&#x27;s most liberal government. You&#x27;ll find strong party factions with ties to post-NSA thinkers and movers. The place is beaming with intellectual discourse. It is also a hacker mecca so there are plenty of fringe technological movements. What you will not find is a large tech community (though it is growing fast) nor a very money driven culture.<p>Go to Berlin if you want to make impact on the world. Go to Israel if you want to make money.

Come down to Santa Cruz, Bolivia!<p>Minimal bureaucracy, you can register your company in an afternoon. <a href="http://www.fundempresa.org.bo/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fundempresa.org.bo&#x2F;</a><p>You can buy a huge location for peanuts. Or even rent a huge mansion for $2000&#x2F;month. I&#x27;m talking about a place that could house a team of 50 easily.<p>Weather is really beautiful, 90% of the time it&#x27;s warm and sunny. The winter months are May&#x2F;June&#x2F;July. With only 1 week or two of real &#x27;winter&#x27; weather.<p>Lots of untapped talent. The best developers here work for outsourcing companies making about $1000-$1200&#x2F;month. If you were to offer $2000 you can easily poach the best.<p>Cost of living is minimal. $600&#x2F;month and you&#x27;re set.

For small innovating business-friendly countries I would suggest Estonia or Slovakia. If you like sea and nice weather Slovenia, Croatia or Monte Negro.

&quot;We are now going to build our next project, a mobile social network.&quot;<p>The chances of becoming a serious Whatsapp competitor have just vanished. Focus is everything, spread too thin and you&#x27;re done for good.

Narnia looks like a safe choice.

Singapore. In response to the preferences they expressed on Facebook, it&#x27;s got little bureaucracy, a small government, no wars, minimal regulation, a strong judicial system, a relatively free market (ranked no. 2 in the world for economic freedom).<p>Not such a free place if you want to displace the government or use recreational drugs, however, but business-wise it&#x27;s pretty open.

Canada, Toronto specifically, but other cities are great too.<p>Canadian government is decidedly anti-Putin. Canada has both start-up visa program[0] and business immigration program[1]. Lots of talent. As for bureaucracy, police state, regulation, and big governments - really depends on whom you ask and everything is relative so I&#x27;ll leave it at that.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/index.asp" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cic.gc.ca&#x2F;english&#x2F;immigrate&#x2F;business&#x2F;start-up&#x2F;ind...</a><p>[1] <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cic.gc.ca&#x2F;english&#x2F;immigrate&#x2F;business&#x2F;</a>

Longyearbyen, Norway.<p>They even have high-speed optic fiber on the island. And here is a nice property for sale, should be great for a small team of 2-4: <a href="http://www.finn.no/finn/realestate/homes/object?finnkode=44864871" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.finn.no&#x2F;finn&#x2F;realestate&#x2F;homes&#x2F;object?finnkode=448...</a> Plane tickets to the mainland are dirt cheap.<p>Anyway, that is my dream – to get a comfortable, cozy place far away from the continent. Whatever happens out in the world, will likely not distract me from work.<p>Edit: &gt;They have a team of 12<p>Well then, one could always buy land and build on it. Also on Svalbard, taxes are pretty low.

If you are in central europe you can pick Poland (northern Gdansk or western Poznan - Gdansk is web hub of country, Poznan is business and web hub).<p>Poland is not really friends with Russian government lately so they will protect you. Also - not like small countries - they are large enough to stand strong on any requests from big countries about data sharing etc. Some Polish people speaks russian and most young speak english so you would be covered. Cultural differences are not huge so it would be easy to blend in for you.<p>Another guess - Ireland. Country in Nato but in reality its neutral. There is only 12.5% corporate tax, social is pretty good and everybody speaks english. Just pick Dublin or Cork - those are more &quot;ahead&quot; cities. They have good web connection and there are some activities in them. They are also safe. Country is extremely friendly to web startups (good network - lots of free help). Prices are really high though.<p>Canada - it might be hard for visa (unless you state your reason of data protection - Canada is another country having issues with Putins politics). Canada protects freedom to speech and they can protect your data from russia easily. Energy independent (nobody can bully them) is pretty expensive though. Pick Vancouver or Toronto. If you are hardcore - choose Calgary - harsh weather but 0% state tax and business oriented community.<p>There are also places like New Zealand (might be to remote), Vietnam or Phillipines (to small to really give good protection), Japan (expensive and cultural differences might be a problem). Good luck!

If you are interested in Ireland there are some pretty useful government agencies that encourage business locating here.<p><a href="http://www.idaireland.com/help/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.idaireland.com&#x2F;help&#x2F;</a>

Berlin would be a smart bet. Lots of engineers and other tech companies.<p>A history of privacy violations has resulted in a favourable right to privacy enshrined in law. It isn&#x27;t watertight, but it is better than many others.

Ahh, the search for a country that doesn&#x27;t exist. Good luck!

How poetic of him to post this on Facebook of all places!

I just love the answer of a russian which posted an image of the international space station. Might be worth a try.<p>Switzerland is a good location, regarding laws and no corruption. I wonder however how they are going to get work permits anywhere in westeurope tough, when they are all russians. I guess investing a lot of money might fix that problem.

I&#x27;d also suggest Berlin, but aren&#x27;t they in berlin already? If so, I&#x27;d be interested to know why are they looking for yet another country? Sure, you need to know some German to get around, but otherwise berlin has a pretty good climate for startups (and the cost of living is not as high as in Switzerland or Iceland).

I realize we need a new country, a new &quot;Wild West&quot;. How is that seasteading country doing?

I would suggest some South American country. Military coups seems like a thing of past and they&#x27;re pissed at US for various reasons (like spying on them and supporting all those military coups in first place). Something like Uruguay?

How about leaving Europe for ... Bali?<p>Its all over the BBC News today: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27043778" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;business-27043778</a>

Australia is pretty good. The government could be a little smaller, but it&#x27;s not too bad. Melbourne and Sydney have a pretty good tech scene.<p>The weather is different from Russia.

Why not Bulgaria.

Ecuador, Bolivia or Uruguay?

&gt; freedoms, strong judicial systems, small governments, free markets, neutrality and civil rights<p>i wonder what ppl from the east think europe is. europe is one big of a mess of enforced conformity. souvereignty was not in that list but i think it&#x27;s implied. there&#x27;s no such thing in any eu country (except uk, maybe). even switzerland has laid down to their masters overseas.<p>civil rights, small government, neutrality? get out of here as long as you can, buddy.