Vkontakte Founder Throws Paper Planes With Money Out Window

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: May 28, 2012 (Issue # 1709)

facebookru.com A paper airplane with a 5,000-ruble note attached sails out the window

Founder of social media site Vkontakte Pavel Durov and colleagues threw paper airplanes with 5,000-ruble notes ($155) out the window of their St. Petersburg office, causing chaos among revelers celebrating the city's 309th birthday Sunday.

Bloggers described the event online: "Just now Durov was throwing 5,000-ruble notes out the window and was recording how people jumped on the money, pressing on each other and beating each other," Ekaterina Abramova wrote on Vkontake.

"This is disgusting. They threw out about 10 bills. People came out of the crowd with broken noses, were climbing on traffic lights and behaving like monkeys. Durov had a good laugh. Shame on you, Pavel," Abramova wrote.

Other bloggers posted pictures of the event showing airplanes sailing out of the ornately decorated window of the iconic Singer building in which Durov's office is located.

Durov explained the situation on his Twitter account.

"My colleagues and I decided to support the holiday atmosphere with a little event, but we had to stop quickly — people started to behave like animals," Durov wrote.