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VKontakte Denies Founder Resignation Rumors

Pavel Durov, founder of Russia's largest social network Vkontakte, is not considering resignation from his current post as the company's general director, the network's official spokesman Georgy Lobushkin wrote on his Twitter account Saturday.

"The issue of Pavel Durov's resignation as CEO is not on the table, therefore there's no point in discussing possible candidates to replace him," Lobushkin wrote.

Media reported last week that Durov's resignation may come after an emergency meeting of Vkontakte's shareholders later this month, convening at the request of one of key shareholders, Dozhd TV reported.

Several people including creator of portal Superjob.ru Alexei Zakharov and Ilya Shirokov, head of the social network Odnoklassniki, were earlier named as Durov's possible successors.

On Jan. 24 Durov announced the sale of his 12-percent stake in VKontakte worth $350-480 million, which was bought by mobile phone provider Megafon's CEO Ivan Tavrin, who is closely affiliated with tycoon Alisher Usmanov.

Initial rumors that there may be a change in VKontakte's leadership began to appear in October. One of the company's shareholders accused Durov of growing increasingly indifferent to his job and losing efficiency.

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