RUSSIA: The Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced on Monday that he had relinquished his Russian citizenship after leaving the nation in 2014.
The process was completed in August, according to a blog post on the website of Yuri Milner’s venture financing firm, DST Global.
In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the post’s discussion of the company’s “history in relation to Russia” has generated controversy.
Yuri Milner wrote in a tweet, “My family and I left Russia for good in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea and this summer, we officially completed the process of renouncing our Russian citizenship.”
When Russia attacked Ukraine earlier this year, DST Global and his foundation denounced “Russia’s war against Ukraine, its sovereign neighbor.” They also spoke out against “unprovoked and brutal assaults against the civilian population.” Milner asserted that he supported their claims.
According to an information sheet on DST Global’s website, Yuri Milner has been an Israeli citizen since 1999 and hasn’t gone to Russia since 2014.
In addition, Yuri Milner has no holdings in Russia, 97% of his personal wealth was generated outside of the nation, and according to the website, “Yuri has never met Vladimir Putin, either individually or in a group.”
Yuri Milner, a prominent tech leader who was born in Moscow, sought to disassociate his company from Russia as Western nations condemned and imposed sanctions as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Milner is a longtime fixture in Silicon Valley, where his ties to the government have caused some concern.
The founder of the online investment firm DST Global, Milner, accumulated riches by making bets on Chinese tech giants, including the e-commerce sites JD.com and Alibaba (9618.HK). DST Global made profitable investments in tech behemoths such as Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc., and Twitter Inc.
In 2011, DST Global came under fire for accepting money from Russian backers and a state-run bank. Since then, neither DST has received funds from Russia nor has it made any investments there, according to Milner’s statement.
Milner stated in an interview that “I cannot change the fact that I was born in Russia. We have some Russian funds, which I cannot change.”
Milner owns a residence in Los Altos, California, which he paid $100 million for in 2011. He is the holder of an O-1 visa, which is favoured by business people and only granted to those with “extraordinary ability.”
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