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Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

nytimes.com

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Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#81

Post by throw2016 »

pinewurst wrote: post #9
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8

Holy crap. DST Global and its affiliates have (or had in formative years) significant stakes in Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, ZocDoc, Planet Lab, Xiaomi, Stripe, Alibaba, WhatsApp and Airbnb [1]. Milner has close ties to Y Combinator [2]. It's been a deal-terms setting, behind-the-kimono peeking major investor for a decade. This is immensely scary. We've utterly failed, as an industry, to self regulate. [1] https://en.…

Why is this surprising? When Milner came virtually out of the blue (or red, as the case may be) a few years ago, it seemed obvious that he was a conduit/laundry for oligarch cash at least. I even remember telling someone at the time that if we were chosen for YC, we didn't want Milner's dirty money. The additional Kremlin state ties seem only an additional technicality. (I mean the formalized acknowledgement of what…

This doesn't make sense. What makes money 'dirty'? What about banks like Goldman Sachs? Is their money 'clean'? What about the Saudi and UAE investment funds? How does one decide what is 'dirty' and 'clean' money and identify it?

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#82

Post by dawhizkid »

pinewurst wrote: post #9
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8

Holy crap. DST Global and its affiliates have (or had in formative years) significant stakes in Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, ZocDoc, Planet Lab, Xiaomi, Stripe, Alibaba, WhatsApp and Airbnb [1]. Milner has close ties to Y Combinator [2]. It's been a deal-terms setting, behind-the-kimono peeking major investor for a decade. This is immensely scary. We've utterly failed, as an industry, to self regulate. [1] https://en.…

Why is this surprising? When Milner came virtually out of the blue (or red, as the case may be) a few years ago, it seemed obvious that he was a conduit/laundry for oligarch cash at least. I even remember telling someone at the time that if we were chosen for YC, we didn't want Milner's dirty money. The additional Kremlin state ties seem only an additional technicality. (I mean the formalized acknowledgement of what…

He "purposely" overpaid by $50m for a house in Los Altos -> http://www.businessinsider.com/yuri-milners-100-million-sili...

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#83

Post by argonaut »

pinewurst wrote: post #9
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8

Holy crap. DST Global and its affiliates have (or had in formative years) significant stakes in Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, ZocDoc, Planet Lab, Xiaomi, Stripe, Alibaba, WhatsApp and Airbnb [1]. Milner has close ties to Y Combinator [2]. It's been a deal-terms setting, behind-the-kimono peeking major investor for a decade. This is immensely scary. We've utterly failed, as an industry, to self regulate. [1] https://en.…

Why is this surprising? When Milner came virtually out of the blue (or red, as the case may be) a few years ago, it seemed obvious that he was a conduit/laundry for oligarch cash at least. I even remember telling someone at the time that if we were chosen for YC, we didn't want Milner's dirty money. The additional Kremlin state ties seem only an additional technicality. (I mean the formalized acknowledgement of what…

It seems obvious now, but you only have to look at an HN thread 6 years ago discussing Yuri Milner to see that many people in tech (or at least on HN), including pg, did not believe Yuri was an extension of the Russian state: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3143604. (Of course, many also recognized this as obvious at the time).

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#84

Post by 1776once »

The bay area got so caught up in their liberalism and inclusion, they didn't think that some of the people they are accepting (not just Russia, Chineese are everywhere in SF and many don't speak any english) might have deceptive and un-american intentions.

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#85

Post by pdog »

pheldagryph wrote: post #80

Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed concerns that Jack Dorsey is favoring the Russian government over the United States government. Senator Tom Cotton, CIA Director John Brennan, transcript from Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on June 2016: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=414 SENATOR COTTON: I want to discuss cooperation with our Intelligence Community from Silicon Valley, specificall…

How is RT at all comparable to the CIA? Even if you accept the premise that RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service.

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#86

Post by pdog »

argonaut wrote: post #83
pinewurst wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this surprising? When Milner came virtually out of the blue (or red, as the case may be) a few years ago, it seemed obvious that he was a conduit/laundry for oligarch cash at least. I even remember telling someone at the time that if we were chosen for YC, we didn't want Milner's dirty money. The additional Kremlin state ties seem only an additional technicality. (I mean the formalized acknowledgement of what…

It seems obvious now, but you only have to look at an HN thread 6 years ago discussing Yuri Milner to see that many people in tech (or at least on HN), including pg, did not believe Yuri was an extension of the Russian state: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3143604 . (Of course, many also recognized this as obvious at the time).

Paul Graham on Yuri Milner at the time:

"If there's one mistake this story makes, it's in trying to come up with complicated theories about why Yuri does well. He's simply smart."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3143894

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#87

Post by cycrutchfield »

pdog wrote: post #85
pheldagryph wrote: post #80

Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed concerns that Jack Dorsey is favoring the Russian government over the United States government. Senator Tom Cotton, CIA Director John Brennan, transcript from Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on June 2016: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=414 SENATOR COTTON: I want to discuss cooperation with our Intelligence Community from Silicon Valley, specificall…

How is RT at all comparable to the CIA? Even if you accept the premise that RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service.

So your argument is that a foreign propaganda entity is preferable to a domestic intelligence agency?

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#88

Post by aplummer »

pdog wrote: post #85
pheldagryph wrote: post #80

Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed concerns that Jack Dorsey is favoring the Russian government over the United States government. Senator Tom Cotton, CIA Director John Brennan, transcript from Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on June 2016: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=414 SENATOR COTTON: I want to discuss cooperation with our Intelligence Community from Silicon Valley, specificall…

How is RT at all comparable to the CIA? Even if you accept the premise that RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service.

Isn’t your point like saying you can sell to the army because they aren’t the CIA?

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#89

Post by pheldagryph »

pdog wrote: post #85
pheldagryph wrote: post #80

Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed concerns that Jack Dorsey is favoring the Russian government over the United States government. Senator Tom Cotton, CIA Director John Brennan, transcript from Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on June 2016: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=414 SENATOR COTTON: I want to discuss cooperation with our Intelligence Community from Silicon Valley, specificall…

How is RT at all comparable to the CIA? Even if you accept the premise that RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service.

How does one determine that two things are different, or similar, without comparing them?

> RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service

I wonder if there are National Security Letters and FISA courts (or something comparable) in Russia.

Re: Kremlin Cash Behind Yuri Milner’s Twitter and Facebook Investments

#90

Post by davesque »

pdog wrote: post #85
pheldagryph wrote: post #80

Senate Intelligence Committee has expressed concerns that Jack Dorsey is favoring the Russian government over the United States government. Senator Tom Cotton, CIA Director John Brennan, transcript from Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on June 2016: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=414 SENATOR COTTON: I want to discuss cooperation with our Intelligence Community from Silicon Valley, specificall…

How is RT at all comparable to the CIA? Even if you accept the premise that RT is a Russian propaganda channel, it's not a foreign intelligence service.

Why would you not accept that premise? The fact that RT is a propaganda channel is widely known.
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