WEB GIANTS
TWO Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin invested heavily in Twitter and Facebook.
Payments were made by Russian technology magnate Yuri Milner who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.
Facebook and Twitter were not made aware that funding came from state-controlled VTB Bank and a financial arm of the state oil and gas firm Gazprom, according to Milner.
Vanessa Chan, for Facebook, said the investment backed by Gazprom Investholding had been sold five years ago, after Facebook went public. Chan said Facebook “rejected the notion of a lack of due diligence” being done on its investors.
Twitter said: “As a matter of policy Twitter conducted reviews of all pre-IPO investors.” Kushner’s spokesman declined to comment. The discovery is likely to raise further concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year’s presidential election.
Alexander Vershbow, a former US ambassador to Russia, said the Russian state institutions were frequently used as “tools for Putin’s pet political projects”.
Files show in 2011, VTB funded a $191million investment in Twitter about the time Gazprom Investholding financed an offshore firm which funded a vehicle holding $1billion of Facebook shares.