Richest Russian of Silicon Valley gives up citizenship after war

Yuri Milner, wealthiest man in Russia’s Silicon Valley, said on Monday that he had renounced his Russian citizenship.

Yuri Milner, Silicon Valley’s wealthiest Russian, said on Monday that he had renounced his Russian citizenship.

Milner completed the process in August, according to a post on his venture firm DST Global’s website, which addresses its “background in relation to Russia” — a topic that’s become controversial following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a tweet, Milner said that he and his family “left Russia for good” in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. When Russia attacked Ukraine earlier this year, DST Global released a statement condemning “Russia’s war against Ukraine, its sovereign neighbor,” and his foundation spoke out against “unprovoked and brutal assaults against the civilian population.” Milner said he stood behind those statements.

Milner was born in Moscow and was the most prominent tech leader to seek to distance his firm from Russia as Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion drew condemnation and sanctions from Western governments. Milner’s ties to the country sparked some consternation in Silicon Valley, where he is a longtime fixture. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Milner’s wealth at about $3.5 billion. DST Global made lucrative investments in tech giants including Facebook, now Meta Platforms Inc., and Twitter Inc.

DST Global drew scrutiny for taking Russian funds from a state-controlled bank and other Russian backers in 2011. DST hasn’t taken any money from Russia since that time, nor has it made any investments in the country, Milner told Bloomberg in March. In 2011, Vladimir Putin was not the president and it appeared to be a sunnier time for US-Russia relations.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in March, Milner said, “I cannot change the fact I was born in Russia. I cannot change the fact we had some Russian funds.”

Milner has a house in Los Altos, California, which he purchased in 2011 for $100 million. He holds an O-1 visa in the US, a type popular with entrepreneurs and reserved for people of “extraordinary ability.”

Nirmala Sitharaman's prediction for India's economy as IMF cuts global growth

Nirmala Sitharaman said growth will be among the top priorities of the Narendra Modi government and attention will be paid to sustaining the momentum that the Indian economy has got coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is in the US to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, on Tuesday forecasted India’s growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year.

Sitharaman said growth will be among the top priorities of the Narendra Modi government and attention will be paid to sustaining the momentum that the Indian economy has got coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her statement comes even as the IMF, in its latest projection, predicted India’s GDP growth to be 6.8 per cent — down from a January projection of 8.2 per cent and in July estimate of 7.4 per cent. However, despite the slowdown, India would remain the fastest-growing major economy.

The IMF said on Tuesday global growth is expected to slow further next year, downgrading its forecasts as countries grapple with the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, spiraling cost-of-living and economic downturns.

The world economy has been dealt multiple blows, with the war in Ukraine driving up food and energy prices following the coronavirus outbreak, while soaring costs and rising interest rates threaten to reverberate around the globe.

“I am aware that growth forecasts around the world are being revised lower. We expect India’s growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year. More importantly, I am confident of India’s relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade,” she said addressing a gathering in Washington.

Sitharaman, however, observed that the Indian economy is not exempt from the impact of the world economy. “No economy is,” she said.

“After the unprecedented shock of the pandemic, came the conflict in Europe with its implications for energy, fertiliser and food prices. Now, synchronised global monetary policy is tightening in its wake. So, naturally, growth projections have been revised lower for many countries, including India. This triple shock has made growth and inflation a double-edged sword,” Sitharaman said.

After the Russia-Ukraine conflict started in February 2022, there was a sharp increase in food and energy prices. India had to ensure that the rising cost of living did not lead to lower consumption through erosion of purchasing power.

“We addressed these multiple and complex challenges through a variety of interventions. One, India ramped up its vaccine production and vaccination. India has administered over 2 billion doses of vaccine produced domestically. Two, India’s digital infrastructure ensured the delivery of targeted relief Third, in 2022, after the conflict erupted in Europe, we ensured adequate availability of food and fuel domestically, lowered import duties on edible oil and cut excise duties on petrol and diesel. The central bank has acted swiftly to ensure that inflation did not get out of hand and that currency depreciation was neither rapid nor significant enough to lead to a loss of confidence,” the minister said.

Sitharaman said India is discussing with different countries to make Rupay acceptable in their nations.

“Not just that, the UPI (Unified Payments Interface), the BHIM app, and NCPI (the National Payments Corporation of India) are all now being worked in such a way that their systems in their respective country, however, robust or otherwise can talk to our system and the inter-operability itself will give strength for Indians expertise in those countries,” she said.

Russian FSB to allow India access to detained IS bomber

While Russia will take approval from Uzbekistan before giving access to Islamic State bomber, the Indian security agencies are keen to dig out the local link who was to supply explosives and target to the terrorist.

Islamic State terrorist from Uzbek detained in Russia.

Russia has agreed into principle to allow Indian security agencies access to detained Islamic State terrorist, who was planning to target members of the ruling BJP or the RSS for alleged blasphemy, after securing approval from the country of radical’s origin Uzbekistan.

On July 27, 2022, the Russian security agency, the FSB, informed their Indian counterparts about the detention of 30-year-old Uzbek national Mashrabkon Azamov, who was planning to commit a suicide bombing against the ruling party representatives in India for alleged blasphemy. Azamov along with another Kyrgyzstan national was radicalized by an IS handler in Turkey as well as through online channels for the mission against India. The terrorist chose the Moscow route to enter India to avoid maximum scrutiny by the Indian immigration authorities.

With India and Russia partners against religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the FSB has conveyed to its Indian counterpart that they will allow access to Azamov after taking approval from Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyzstan national was not picked up by the FSB and apparently went back to Turkey.

Even though Russia has shared parts of Azamov’s interrogation report relevant to the Indian context, the security agencies are keen to dig out the Indian local link that was supposed to supply explosives as well as single out the VVIP target to be hit. The Indian intelligence also wants to find out who is behind the radicalization against India in Turkey, a close ally of Pakistan. The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) terrorist group has its footprint in Telangana and Kerala and is growing in numbers in Afghanistan as a counter to the Taliban. A terror group that wants to capture land and power in the name of propagating medieval Islam, ISKP believes in Sunni supremacy and is against all other sects of Islam. The ISKP in Afghanistan also plays the cat’s paw for the Pakistani deep state to check the Taliban and keep the Sunni Pashtun force under control with savage indiscriminate violence against the Shia Hazaras community including school children and others.

With the Taliban not being able to control large swathes of Afghan territory, the ISKP is expected to expand in the ultra-conservative and already radicalized Emirate and will be a cause of problems to India, bordering Central Asian Republics and China soon.