• Blavatnik and Vekselberg, oligarchs

    From David P.@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 19 21:32:09 2022
    Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik is a British-American business magnate and philanthropist of Ukrainan Jewish origin. As of March 2022, Forbes listed Blavatnik's wealth as $35.4 billion, the 20th-richest in the world. In 2017, Blavatnik received a
    knighthood for services to philanthropy.

    Blavatnik made his fortune after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the tumultuous privatization of state-owned aluminum and oil assets. He owns most of Warner Music Group and has stakes in several publicly traded assets via his company Access
    Industries Holdings.

    Blavatnik was born in 1957 in Odessa, then part of the Soviet Union of the Ukrainian SSR, to a Jewish family. Blavatnik’s parents moved to Yaroslavl, a Russian city north of Moscow, when Blavatnik was a child. Blavatnik attended Moscow State University
    of Railway Engineering, but did not complete his coursework due to the family's request for emigration visas.

    At Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, Blavatnik became close friends with Viktor Vekselberg, another Ukrainian Jew. The college was one of the only high-ranking colleges in Moscow to accept Jewish people, who were then subject to widespread
    discrimination in the country. Vekelsberg would later go on to found Renova Group

    His family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States of America in 1978, and he received a master's degree in computer science from Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Blavatnik

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    Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg is a Ukrainian-born Russian–Cypriot oligarch, billionaire, and businessman. He is the owner and president of Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, as of November 2021, his fortune is estimated at $9.3
    billion, making him the 262nd richest person in the world.

    Vekselberg is close to the Kremlin, overseeing projects to modernize the Russian economy. In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals in relation to Russia's annexation of Crimea, officially freezing up to $2
    billion in assets. In March 2022, following Russia's invasion against Ukraine, the United States strengthened its sanctions and the UK, EU and Australia also placed sanctions on Vekselberg, thereby seizing his assets and imposing a travel ban.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Vekselberg

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