Billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner tweeted on Monday afternoon that his family had successfully finished the procedure of leaving their Russian citizenship in the summer. He stated that after the 2014 invasion of Crimea, they “left Russia for good.”
Milner, a 60-year-old billionaire from Russia with Israeli citizenship, resides in the United States thanks to a unique visa. His early investments in Facebook and Twitter through his investment company, DST Global, which has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Beijing, and Hong Kong, have made him a well-known player in the area. With Spotify, Airbnb, and popular Chinese digital firms like Alibaba and JD.com, Milner has invested in various businesses.
Yuri Milner left Russia following the invasion of Crimea
Following the annexation of Crimea, Milner said in a tweet that he and his family “leave Russia for good” in 2014. DST Global issued a statement denouncing “Russia’s war on Ukraine, its sovereign neighbor,” and his foundation spoke out against “unprovoked and barbaric assaults against the civilian population” when Russia attacked Ukraine earlier this year. Milner asserted that he supported their statements.
The most well-known IT executive to try to separate his company from Russia as Western countries condemned and imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine was Milner, who was born in Moscow. His long-standing presence in SiliconValley caused some concern because of Milner’s ties to the nation. Milner’s wealth is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to be around $3.5 billion. DST Global made significant investments in tech behemoths including Twitter Inc. and Facebook, now Meta Platforms Inc.
Sruitny of DST Global in USA
In 2011, DST Global came under scrutiny for receiving funds from Russian backers and a state-controlled bank. Since then, neither DST has received funds from Russia nor has it made any investments there, Milner told Bloomberg in March. When Vladimir Putin was not in office in 2011, ties between the US and Russia seemed to be doing well.
I cannot erase the fact that I was born in Russia, Milner remarked in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in March. I can’t get around the reality that we had some Russian money.
Milner owns a residence in Los Altos, California, which he paid $100 million for in 2011. He is in possession of an O-1 visa, which is favored by businesspeople and only granted to those with “exceptional aptitude.”