DST Global, Yuri Milner and Russia
Fact Sheet

Yuri Milner

• Yuri was born in Moscow in 1961 to a Ukrainian-Jewish father and a Russian-Jewish mother.
• In 1985 Yuri graduated in theoretical physics from Moscow State University.
• In 1990 he became one of the first students from the Soviet Union to study in the United States, and the first to attend the Wharton School of Business.
• From 1992-1995 he worked at the World Bank in Washington, D. C.
• He has been an Israeli citizen since 1999.
• He moved his family to Israel in 2005, and his first two daughters were born there.
• He bought a house in Silicon Valley, USA, in 2011.
• He moved his family to California in 2014, where his third daughter was born and the entire Milner family, including his mother, now reside.
• He has not been to Russia since 2014.
• He has not been Russia’s tax resident since 2011.
• He has no business interests in Russia since 2012.
• He has no assets in Russia.
• 97% of Yuri’s personal wealth was created outside of Russia.
• Yuri has never met Vladimir Putin, either individually or in a group.
• In April 2020, in its annual Billionaire List, Forbes magazine re-classified Yuri from its Russian list to its Israeli list, confirming his close ties to the country.
• In August 2022 Yuri Milner officially completed the process of renouncing his Russian citizenship.

DST Global

Founding

In 2009, Yuri founded the technology investment company DST Global to focus exclusively on internet investments globally.

Fundraising

DST Global funds have not raised capital from Russian investors since 2011 (DST Global II). Among well over 150 investors, there has been no capital from Russia in the last seven DST Global funds: in any of DST Global III (2012), DST Global IV (2014), DST Global V (2015), DST Global VI (2018), DST Global VII (2019), DST Global VIII (2021) and most recent DST Global IX (2021).

Investments

DST Global funds have invested in over 80 companies around the world, none of which are based in Russia.

Offices

DST Global has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Hong Kong and Beijing, and has no office in Russia.

Russian Institution

Less than 3% of the total capital raised by DST Global from inception to 2022 was from a Russian institution (VTB Bank), all prior to 2011, and all such capital was fully returned by 2014.

Russian Investor

One of the early backers of DST Global, was Mr. Alisher Usmanov, whose last investment in DST Global funds was in 2011 (DST Global II). Mr. Usmanov was not an investor in any of DST Global III (2012), DST Global IV (2014), DST Global V (2015), DST Global VI (2018), DST Global VII (2019), DST Global VIII (2021) or DST Global IX (2021).

Diversified Investor Base

DST Global funds have over 150 investors from across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Global Firm

In 2018 the Wall Street Journal confirmed that it had incorrectly named DST Global a Russian firm. It has corrected 13 additional articles containing the same error.

DST Global Investment in Facebook

DST Global invested in Facebook from 2009 to 2011 and divested its holdings in 2012 and 2013 following Facebook’s IPO.

DST Global invested in Facebook purely on commercial basis.

Mr. Usmanov was a passive investor in DST Global funds at the time of the Facebook investments, alongside 50 other investors. Assertions that Gazprom financed Mr. Usmanov’s investment in DST Global funds that purchased Facebook shares were shown to be untrue by a report commissioned by Gazprom and conducted by international accounting firm KPMG in 2018.

DST Global Investment in Twitter

DST Global II and its co-investment vehicles invested in Twitter in 2011. Following the IPO of Twitter in 2013, DST Global divested its position in Twitter in May 2014.

DST Global invested in Twitter purely on commercial basis.

VTB Bank was a passive investor in one of the DST Global II co-investment vehicles (DST Investment 3) that invested in Twitter, alongside more than 40 other investors.