On 16 April 2014, Durov publicly refused to hand over the personal data of Ukrainian protesters to Russia's security agencies and block Alexei Navalny's page on VK.[8] Instead, he posted the relevant orders on his own VK page,[29][30] claiming that the requests were unlawful.

On 21 April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO of VK. The company claimed it was acting on his letter of resignation a month earlier that he failed to recall.[8][31] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin's allies,[31][32] suggesting his ouster was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VK group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement.[31][32] Durov then left Russia and stated that he had "no plans to go back"[32] and that "the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment".[8]