The governance until now might have been very different, but Telegram is to VK what Whatsapp is to Facebook. In a way, you could say that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, but I'd still recommend Matrix as a seemingly more future-proof alternative.
The only link between Telegram and VK is that they have the same founder. Durov has been fired from VK and built Telegram after that. There is no other relation between Telegram and VK.
Not really comparable to WhatsApp and Facebook controlled by the same Zuck.