INVESTIGATION: Oligarch Offspring

In this guest investigation by Zarina Zabrisky, an American journalist covering the war in Ukraine, she reveals the Russian connections to Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

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Zarina Zabrisky, an American journalist covering the war in Ukraine, follows the tentacles to the Russian connections in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover in this guest investigation for Bette Dangerous.

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Oligarch Offspring, X-Traordinary Influence and Sugar Deals:

Russian Connections in Musk’s Twitter Takeover

Zarina Zabrisky reports how Elon Musk’s Putin Ties and Oligarch Links Raise Alarms Over X/Twitter Influence

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and X, has reportedly maintained regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. His communication also allegedly extended to Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, whom the U.S. Justice Department accused in 2023 of spreading disinformation to undermine support for Ukraine and influence U.S. elections. Sources suggest these exchanges took place under pressure from Moscow, with implicit threats to Musk’s business interests.

Given Musk’s vocal support for Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged to lift economic sanctions on the Russian Federation, and his admiration for Putin, this concerning development does not come as a shock. The Kremlin is known for cultivating its network of agents of influence in the West.

Of special concern, though, is the weaponization of social media platforms for changing public opinion and swaying elections. During a hybrid war, malign actors exploit social media to spread misinformation and change political landscapes.

In the aftermath of the US elections, an August underreported revelation is worth revisiting. On August 30, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, released court documents released listing 100 entities and individuals involved in Elon Musk's X Holdings Corp, which financed his $44 billion (€40 billion) acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

Among the investors was a technology and bio-sciences investment firm 8VC, which employs family members of sanctioned Russian oligarchs. Denis Aven and Jack Moshkovich, are sons of sanctioned Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich, respectively.

Responding to criticism and concerns about Russian-backed influence infiltrating the platform, 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale, also a co-founder of Palantir, an intelligence contractor and data analysis platform, tweeted, “It turns out [Jack Moshkovich’s] father is a successful agricultural leader in Russia; if you’re a businessman in Russia, and their leader says to meet, you go, regardless of your views.... His father is now on ‘oligarch’ sanction lists. I didn’t hire his father; I hired him...

“…Denis [Aven] is a friend of Jack’s, whom he admired and respected as one of the brightest people in his life. Denis went to secondary school in the UK, and attended Yale and Harvard ... Denis hasn’t lived in Russia since he was 12. Should we hold him accountable for the invasion and push this talent out of the U.S.? We operate in many sectors, including defense, where I’ve founded more top U.S. companies than anyone alive… I happen to disagree that it’s a good strategy for us to isolate the smart, wealthy Russian people themselves.”

The “naïve” take is more harmful than it might appear. Given the intersection of defense investments and social media platforms with national security, thorough scrutiny—and a sober look at the reality of a mafia state—is essential.

The Aven Family: “The Smart, Wealthy Russian People”

Denis Aven is the son of Petr Aven, the president of Alfa Group, one of Russia's largest financial and industrial conglomerates. Alfa Group operates as a sprawling consortium of financial, industrial, and retail enterprises, with significant domestic and international influence.

Petr Aven is a co-founder and one of the three owners of Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, and the LetterOne Holdings investment company. Aven stepped down from LetterOne's board in March 2022. Together with oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and German Khan, Aven holds significant stakes in these ventures. Aven has long-standing and close ties to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin awarded Aven the Order of Friendship in 2015.

Petr Aven has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, the European Union (sanctions were then removed,) and the United Kingdom as part of the broader measures targeting Russian oligarchs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Aven’s Role in Putin’s Rise to Power

Petr Aven’s critical involvement in Putin’s career traces back to the early 1990s. At the time, Putin was the Chairman of the Committee on External Relations at the St. Petersburg City Hall, while Aven served as the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation in Moscow. Their partnership came under scrutiny during a major scandal in 1992.

St. Petersburg, still recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, was plunged into severe economic hardship, with food shortages and ration cards reminiscent of the WWII Siege of Leningrad, which claimed over 1.5 million lives. To address the crisis, the city entered into barter agreements with Western partners, exchanging raw materials such as oil, timber, and metals for food supplies. However, the promised goods never arrived.

Marina Salye, the head of a local committee of deputies, launched an investigation into a corrupt scheme orchestrated by Putin, Aven, and St. Petersburg’s mayor, Anatoly Sobchak. Salye’s findings pointed to shell companies and misappropriated funds, with $122 million worth of exported resources unaccounted for. Putin was accused of signing export licenses beyond his authority and later denied their existence, though copies with his signature surfaced in the investigation. Aven, who was Putin’s boss at the time, had a crucial role in silencing the investigation and shielding Putin from further scrutiny. The inquiry was suppressed in 1992 and the documents mysteriously vanished from city archives.

In 1999, Putin rose to national power. Salye, fearing for her life, went into exile for a decade. In 2010, she resurfaced and gave several interviews, hinting that her findings could have derailed Putin’s career. In 2012, after speaking publicly at an opposition rally, Salye died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. Before her death, she expressed concerns that her associates had been assassinated.

Aven and Fridman’s Connections to Organized Crime and Corruption

A 2007 report by Stratfor, the global intelligence firm known as the “shadow CIA,” alleged that Aven and Fridman had ties to the Solntsevo mafia. The report stated that Aven and Fridman had been dogged by 25 allegations of corruption and illegal conduct, rigged the auction of state assets through government connections, threatened the lives of officials, ordered assassinations, and engaged in narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

In 2013, Fridman set up The LetterOne Group, an international investment business, as part of a broader new investment vehicle using the proceeds from the sale of TNK-BP to Rosneft, the third-largest Russian company and the second-largest state-controlled company (after Gazprom) in Russia. Petr Aven was a Board member of Letter One till March 2022.

In 2016, LetterOne Holdings, an investment vehicle controlled by Alfa Group, made a $200 million investment in Uber. Shortly after, Uber’s CEO joined Trump’s economic advisory group, though he resigned in February 2017 following public backlash under the #DeleteUber campaign.

Rosneft and the Steele Dossier Allegations

Alfa-Bank and Aven were also implicated in the infamous Steele dossier, which alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. The dossier claimed that in July 2016, Carter Page—an early Trump campaign foreign policy and energy advisor—traveled to Moscow and met with Igor Sechin, the executive chairman of Rosneft, Russian biggest oil company partially owned by the Russian government (69%) and a close Putin ally. During this meeting, Sechin allegedly discussed lifting U.S. sanctions in exchange for offering Trump’s associates a 19% stake in Rosneft’s privatized assets.

Aven’s New Economic School in Moscow sponsored Page’s visit, though Aven denied any connection. When Rosneft’s privatization deal was unexpectedly announced in December 2016, Page was again in Moscow, raising further suspicions. On the same day as the announcement, Trump nominated Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State—an appointment Page seemed to have foreseen in a presentation in Moscow days earlier.

Trump’s First Major Policy Speech

In April 2016, Richard Burt, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany, a member of the Center’s board of directors, chairman of the advisory council for The National Interest, and a former member of the senior advisory board of Alfa Bank and LetterOne, helped draft Donald Trump’s first major policy speech at The National Interest.

Trump delivered the speech at the National Interest event in Washington, D.C., in April 2016. This address later called for scrutiny over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Cambridge Analytica and Data Manipulation

The involvement of Aven and Fridman in Cambridge Analytica, a company which provided data services to Trump’s campaign, using improperly harvested Facebook data to influence voters, added another layer to their connections with Trump’s campaign.

Robert Mercer, the co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies LLC, who invested about $5 million in Cambridge Analytica and owned 90% of the company, also bought US-listed shares of Russian telecommunications firms with significant operations in Russia and Ukraine, including VimpelCom (VIP), an affiliate of Alfa Bank. Mercer’s daughter, Rebekah Mercer, helped shape Trump’s transition team and selected Michael Flynn as national security adviser.

“A Successful Agricultural Leader in Russia”

Jack Moshkovich is the son of Vadim Moshkovich, chairman of agro-industrial firm Rusagro, a big manufacturer of pork, fats and sugar who made his fortune in the Russian agro-industrial business and served in Russia’s Federation Council, the upper chamber of parliament, from 2006 to 2014. As of 2021, the main owner of Rusagro was “the family of Vadim Moshkovich, with more than 70% shares.” Vadim Moshkovich resigned in 2022 after being sanctioned by western states—though not by the United States—after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“On 24 February 2022, in the aftermath of the initial stages of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Vadim Moshkovich, along with 36 other businesspersons, met with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and other members of the Russian government to discuss the impact of the course of action in the wake of Western sanctions. The fact that he was invited to attend this meeting shows that he is a member of the closest circle of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine. It also shows that he is a leading businessperson operating in Russia,” stated Swiss SECO Sanctions/Embargoes.

Vadim Moshkovich and his business partners are closely connected to a company sanctioned by several countries for producing reconnaissance drones for Russia’s defense ministry. Evidence links Vadim Moshkovich and his partners to drone manufacturing activities, which they concealed under the cover of existing agricultural enterprises to evade potential asset seizures by manipulating ownership and formal associations.

In 2021, Vadim Moshkovich and Maxim Basov co-founded AssistAgro. Publicly available registries show that both Moshkovich and Basov were later replaced by a new founder, Ilya Voronkov, the founder of Albatros LLC, a company located in Tatarstan, Russia. Email correspondence indicates that Rusagro and AssistAgro are directly involved in the production of drones supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Albatros facilities are part of a Russian state-backed program developed with assistance from Iran, which provided staff training and materials to help assemble military drones used in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Albatros has been producing these drones since 2017.

Conclusion

On July 24, 2024, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, in partnership with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Office of Economic Security and Emerging Technology, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, issued a bulletin warning U.S. technology startups about foreign investments. The bulletin emphasized that “startups can suffer undue foreign influence that forces corporate decisions benefiting foreign threat actors at the expense of the U.S. company… Foreign threat actors can also target startups that contract with the U.S. government—and other critical U.S. sectors—to threaten U.S. national security.”

The bulletin further noted: “A foreign investor may invest in U.S. companies indirectly through U.S. firms or others in which they are limited partners. Some limited partners are passive, while others gain influence over corporate decisions or access to proprietary data.”

The question remains: how many connections to sanctioned oligarchs are too many?

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