Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who is on Russia's international wanted list, said he is looking for a way to safely deliver prizes to the winners of the International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad held in Astana. The total prize money exceeds $106,500, according to infohub.kz.
In his official Telegram channel, Durov noted that the Russian team took first place in the team standings, and Artem Gorokhov, from his hometown, won the individual competition. He also congratulated Kazakhstan, whose representative Dauzhan Beketov came second in the individual standings. "We are in touch with the organizers to safely hand over the prizes from Telegram (over $106,500) to the winners next month," he wrote.
The International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence IOAI 2026 took place in Astana from August 2 to 8. It brought together about 500 school students, mentors, and jury members from 106 countries. It was the first time such a high-level competition was held in Central Asia.
In the individual standings, Artem Gorokhov from Russia took first place, Dauzhan Beketov from Kazakhstan second, and Shao Zixi from China third. The Russian team won the team standings. In the Team Challenge, special awards were given: the Best Demonstration Award for the best performance in the robot competition went to New Zealand, the Creative Robot Design Award for the most creative robot design to Hong Kong, and the AI-Native Robotics Award for the best application of AI-native approaches in robotics to Brazil.
It should be recalled that in Russia, Durov has been charged with aiding terrorist activity and has been placed on the international wanted list. According to the FSB, the charges are linked to the dating chatbot "Daivinchik". Roskomnadzor said it sent over 150,000 requests to the messenger's team to remove prohibited content, which were not fulfilled, after which Durov was added to the list of terrorists and extremists.