DST Global's Connections to the Russian Government

I've created a Prezi which depicts the many connections between the principals of DST Global and the Russian government. The Prezi graphical user interface allows you to zoom in to each of the connections. Sources and a description follow:

Yuri Milner
Milner currently serves the Russian government directly through several affiliations. He serves on the Presidential commission for the modernization and technological development of the Russian economy, a body on which Vladislav Surkov is deputy chairman. The commission is chaired by President Medvedev, and Sergey Sobyanin, who is Chief of Government Staff and Deputy Prime Minister, also serves as deputy chairman. [1]

The Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications created three bodies to aid in its efforts to monitor Runet, all of which can be connected to Milner:

• Council on Internet Development – Mail.ru Group’s VP of Legal Affairs, M.V. Bobin is a member. [2]
• League of Internet Safety – Mail.ru Group’s CEO Dimitry Grishin is a member. [3]
• Council on Social Communications – Grishin and Milner are both members. 

In addition to his affiliations with these bodies, Milner was also specially appointed by the Ministry to monitor and analyze illegal content on Runet between 2009 and 2010.[4] Through his involvement in Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications cyber-related projects, Milner can be associated with the wider Russian cyber infrastructure, which includes:

• Ministry of Internal Affairs, Center E – suppresses extremist organizations and associations.
• Ministry of Internal Affairs, Directorate K – investigates cyber-crimes and illegal activity related to information technology.
• Federal Security Service (FSB) – responsible for protecting critical infrastructure, including communication networks [5]

Alisher Usmanov

Another key individual that links Milner to the Kremlin is Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek-born Russian oligarch. Usmanov is co-owner of DST and is the largest shareholder of the company with a 32% stake. [8]

• Usmanov co-owns mining and metallurgy company Metalloinvest with State Duma member Andrei Skoch.[9]
• Usmanov has a long-term business relationship with Yevgeny Anayev, who is a former senior officer with the 6th Directorate of the KGB.[10] Anayev is also a former head of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s arms export agency.[11] The agency is a previous shareholder of Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ, and it offered to sell its shares to Usmanov in 2007. [12] Anatoly Isaikin is the current head of Rosoboronexport.[13]
• Usmanov is the chairman of the board for Gazprominvestholdings, the investment holding subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy company.[14] President Dimitry Medvedev was chairman at Gazprom from 2002-2008.[15] Vladimir Alganov, a known supporter of global energy dominance for Gazprom, is a former SVR employee.[16] Gazprominvestholdings is a crucial funder of government organization Nashi, a youth organization founded by Surkov to support the United Russia party.[17] 
• Businessman Boris Berezovsky is a previous shareholder of AvtoVAZ (through investment fund All-Russia Automobile Alliance, or AVVA).[18] He is also a previous shareholder of Russian newspaper Kommersant, for which Usmanov is a current shareholder.[19] Berezovsky, now exiled from Russia, has been claiming part of Vasily Anisimov’s stake in Metalloinvest since 2009.[20] Berezovsky is also a former Duma member.[21] Berezovsky founded LogoVAZ, at which Georgian businessman Arkadi “Badri” Patarkatsishvili worked.[22]
• Patarkatsishvili also was the business and financial director from 1995-2006 at ORT (Obzhestvennoye Rossiskoye Televidenye, Russian Public Television), where Surkov was the first deputy general director from 1998-1999.[23]

Milner also serves on the Commission on High Technologies and Innovations, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs.[6] This commission held a meeting on 3 August 2010 at Gazprom’s VNIIGAZ research institute, which further connects him to Usmanov.[7] Neither Usmanov nor Milner are listed as official members of the commission on its government website, but this is not surprising given both men’s attempts to downplay their Kremlin involvement, especially in the Western media.

Sources:
[1] “Russia Launches Initiative To Police The Internet”, Radio Free Europe / Radio
Liberty website, 08 Feb 2011
[2] “RIPN Representatives Joined Internet Development Council in the Ministry of Communications of Russia,” Russian Institute for Public Networks, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.ripn.net/press/en/2009/internet_sovet.html.
[3]  Kevin O'Flynn, “Russia Launches Initiative to Police Internet,” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, February 8, 2011, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.rferl.org/content/russia_laimches_initiative_to_police_internet/2301671.html.
[4] Vladislav Novy, “Yuri Milner Will Clean Up The Internet," Infox.ru, May 13, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011, http://infox.ru/business/net/2009/12/09/Milnyer_budyet_borot.phtml.
[5] InfoFox.ru "Yuri Milner will clean up the Internet", 13 May 2010
[6] William F. Jasper, “Facebook: Are You Interfacing with the Russian Mafia & KGB?,” The New American, August 18, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011, http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/4346-facebook-are-you-interfacing-with-the-russian-mafia-a-kgb.
[7] “Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Government Commission on High Technology and Innovations at the Gazprom VNIIGAZ research institute for natural gas and gas technologies,” Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, August 3, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011, http://premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/11611/.
[8] Madhav Chanchani, “All You Wanted to Know about Digital Sky Technologies,” Moneycontrol.com, January 14, 2011, accessed September 27, 2011, http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-digital-sky-technologies_513293.html.
[9] “Andrei Skoch - Forbes,” Forbes, last updated March 2011, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/profile/andrei-skoch/.
[10] Ian Cobain, “Usmanov's responses to Guardian questions,” The Guardian, November 18, 2007, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/19/russia.football.
[11] Staff Writers, “Ex-Arms Exporter Wanted in Italy,” The Moscow Times, June 24, 2004, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/ex-arms-exporter-wanted-in-italy/230492.html.
[12] “Russia's Mordashov, Usmanov eye AvtoVaz stake: Ifax,” Reuters, September 26, 2007, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/09/26/us-avtovaz-russia-rosoboronexport-idUSL2668638720070926.
[13] “Anatoly Isaikin Named as Head of Rosoboronexport,” RZD-Partner, November 26, 2007, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.rzd-partner.com/news/2007/11/26/315498.html.
[14] “ALISHER USMANOV - Founder of the Holding,” Metalloinvest, accessed September 28, 2011, http://metinvest.com/eng/metalloinvest/rykovodstvo/founder/.
[15] “Profile: Dmitry Medvedev,” BBC News, last updated May 7, 2008, accessed September 29, 2011, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7136556.stm.
[16] Neil Barnett, “From Poland to Hungary, Gazprom Takes Stealth Route to Domination,” The Independent, January 8, 2006, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/from-poland-to-hungary-gazprom-takes-stealth-route-to-domination-522003.html.
[17]  Jeffrey Carr, “The War that We Don't Recognize is the War We Lose,” Forbes, July 13, 2010, accessed September 28, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/firewall/2010/07/13/the-war-that-we-dont-recognize-is-the-war-we-lose/.
[18] Alla Startseva, “AVVA Positions to Swallow AvtoVAZ,” The St. Petersburg Times, December 5, 2000, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=13557.
[19] Nabi Abdullaev, “Metals Oligarch Buys Up Daily Newspaper,” The St. Petersburg Times, September 5, 2006, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=18717.
[20] Alexandra Terentyova, “Metalloinvest Co-Owner Vasily Anisimov May Sell His Stake,” The St. Petersburg Times, October 29, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=32843.
[21] David Hoffman, “Russia Vote Returns Tycoon to Spotlight,” The Washington Post, December 23, 1999, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/23/076r-122399-idx.html.
[22] “Background Briefing: Arkadi “Badri” Patarkatsishvili,” The Georgian Daily, accessed September 29, 2011, http://georgiandaily.com/repository/Badri%20Patarkatsishvili%20background%20-%2012-07-07.pdf.
[23] “SURKOV, Vladislav Yuryevich,” RussiaProfile.org, last modified August 26, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011, http://www.russiaprofile.org/bg_people/resources_whoiswho_alphabet_s_surkov.html.

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The Kremlin's Online Hit Squad - The Nashi - Attacks LiveJournal.com

The popular Russian blogging site LiveJournal.com has been under heavy DDoS attacks from at least two different botnets over the last couple of weeks targeting high profile political dissident and anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny as well as other controversial sites. Maria Gamaeva of Kaspersky Labs provides a list of the targets that they were able to pull from one of the botnets used in the attack (the Optima/Darkness botnet).

This apparently all began when Navalny began attacking the current ruling political party (United Russia) by calling them the party of swindlers and thieves. Retaliation followed in the form of spamming Navalny's blogs with derogatory comments. At least one advertisement was found online which offered $14,000 rubles per month for individuals to continue the campaign against Navalny, according to Maria Antonova writing for the AFP news agency. Antonova wrote that many bloggers suspected the Nashi to be responsible for the attacks against Navalny and LiveJournal.

The Nashi was the brainchild of Vladislav Surkov, Chief Ideologue and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. Shortly after the Russia Georgia War of 2008, Surkov reportedly told a roomful of Russian spin doctors that "August, 2008 was the starting point of the virtual reality of conflicts and the moment of recognition of the need to wage war in the information field too."("Information Warfare Chronicles" (Yevropa, 2009)).

As I wrote in my book "Inside Cyber Warfare", Surkov intends to use Nashi to enforce the Kremlin’s will regarding RUNET communications, i.e., “Ensure the domination of pro-Kremlin views on the Internet” (published by The New Times Online in Russian, 16 Feb 09). In March, 2009, Surkov
organized a conference with about 20 key people in the Russian blogging community, as well as leaders of the aforementioned youth organizations, some of whom include:
• Maksim Abrakhimov, the Voronezh commissar of the Nashi movement and blogger
• Mariya Drokova, Nashi commissar and recipient of the Order for Services to the Fatherland Second Class medal for her “energetic” work in the area of youth policy
• Mariya Sergeyeva, leader of the United Russia youth wing Young Guard
• Samson Sholademi, popular Russian blogger
• Darya Mitina, former state duma deputy and Russian Communist Youth Union leader

Other attendees included Russian spin doctors who specialize in controlling the messages communicated via the blogosphere. The objective was to work out a strategy for information campaigns on the Internet. It is formulated like this: “To every challenge there should be a response, or better still, two responses simultaneously.” A source who is familiar with the process of preparations for the meeting explained:

• If the opposition launches an Internet publication, the Kremlin should respond by launching two projects.
• If a user turns up on LiveJournal talking about protests in Vladivostok, 10 Kremlin spin doctors should access his blog and try to persuade the audience that everything that was written is lies.

The Nashi is run by the office of the Federal Agency of Youth Affairs' chairman Vasily Yakemenko, who is also the co-founder of the group. Yakemenko's office provides partial funding and is an activist himself. In fact, he's not able to travel in the EU after being declared "persona non grata" by Estonia after organizing a blockade of the Estonian embassy in Moscow in 2007.

The Nashi's other powerful financial supporter is none other than Alisher Usmanov, the largest single shareholder of Facebook investor DST-Global, Inc. who's chairman is Silicon Valley's favorite Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner. Nashi members have been involved in numerous organized cyber attacks against both external and internal targets which oppose the interests of Russia's leadership. A Nashi commissar claimed responsibility for the Estonia 2007 attacks and numerous cyber attacks as well as physical demonstrations have been mounted against Georgia and Georgian activists in 2008 and 2009.

I expect to see an increase in Nashi attacks as the RF Parlimentary elections in December draw closer. In the meantime, a LiveJournal.com support rally is scheduled for tomorrow April 8th at the SUP offices to encourage bloggers to find other ways to communicate in spite of the LJ outages.

UPDATE #1 (7 APR 2011): AFP reports that President Medvedev posted a condemnation of the attacks against Live Journal today.

UPDATE #2 (8 APR 2011): Novaya Gazeta reports a massive DDoS attack today. The paper often publishes articles critical of the United Russia party. In November 2008 it fired Russian Security Services writer Andrei Soldatov of Agentura.ru for unknown reasons although political pressure is suspected.

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