#kanton services

Putin has taken Trump’s advice to 'Buy American, Hire American'

The question now is, what will Facebook and Twitter do about their Russian state owners?

Here’s a quick summary. Read the articles for the details.

Yuri Milner and Putin’s VTB Bank and Gazprom

VTB Bank and Gazprom are Russia state owned companies. Russian state institutions are used as “tools for Putin’s pet political projects”

VTB Bank and Gazprom, owned stakes in Yuri Milner's DST Global funds that invested in Facebook and Twitter.

VTB funded a $191 million investment in Twitter

Gazprom Investholding financed an opaque offshore company, Kanton Services, which in turn funded a vehicle that held $1 Billion worth of Facebook shares

Both VTB and Gazprom are now under US sanctions

Milner once advised the Russian government on technology through a presidential commission chaired by Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and current prime minister

Yuri Milner has invested $7 Billion in more than 30 online companies including Airbnb, Spotify and the Chinese retailers Alibaba and JD.com.

Cadre: Yuri Milner, Jared and Joshua Kushner

Ryan Williams, a Goldman Sachs and Blackstone alum, co-founded Cadre along with Joshua Kushner and Jared Kushner 

Yuri Milner invested $50 million in Cadre

Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser, Peter Thiel, is an investor in Cadre

Jared Kushner Hid One of His Companies on a Disclosure Form — Then Profited, Newsweek.

Paradise Papers: “The leak of 13.4m documents shows the scale of the offshore empire and involves everyone from the Queen to Facebook“