http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10249699-2.html
As reported earlier, Facebook is taking a $200 million round of funding from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment company. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call Tuesday morning that Facebook revenue numbers were up, that the company was growing, and that Facebook was, "on track to creating a nice, self-sustaining business," he explained that at Facebook, "we're open to interesting offers."
With many companies wanting to invest in Facebook, what made the DST offer so interesting?
Regional knowledge
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told me that Facebook was "not actively seeking investments." DST input will be key to Facebook's Eastern European business growth, though. "This is an investment with a strategic partner. We're excited for the learnings," she said.
But a source familiar with DST laid it out for me a bit differently: if Facebook wants to be successful in Russia, DST can bring a lot to the table besides knowledge. DST is close to the government there, the source said, and while outright involvement (or obstruction) from the Russian government is highly unlikely, if Facebook wants its business to go more smoothly, DST can help.
For example, should Facebook want to hire Russians, a connected investor like DST could help. DST influence could be even more important if Facebook wanted to acquire companies in the region.
DST's Alexander Tamas told me his company is private and does not have many interactions with the government. There is no government funding in DST. Still, our source says that DST's connections to the government, subtle though they may be, are important because the Russian market is not friendly to outsiders. "It's a market where you want a partner," I was told.
DST's investment gives it no power over Facebook in the United States, and reportedly no control of the company nor access to U.S. customer data. But through this arrangement, Facebook will likely have an easier time growing its market share in Russia, of obvious benefit to its new investor.
DST: Let them compete
A strong Russian Facebook will also force a competitive evolution of other Eastern European social sites. Tamas says that DST has more than a dozen social network investments, including the top three social sites in the region in terms of traffic (Forticom, VKontakte.ru, and Mail.ru). These sites, and others in the DST portfolio, compete with each other to an extent, and DST is fine with this. "We don't interfere with operations," Tamas says. This arrangement is in stark contrast to many U.S. venture funds, where investors and entrepreneurs expect that the funders' full attention will be on growing their portfolio company businesses. U.S. VCs often make sure their potential portfolio companies are, if anything, potentially cooperative before they invest, and will not take on companies competing for a market they are already in.
However, when your portfolio controls 70 percent of your market, as Tamas says DST's does (the market being the Russian-speaking Internet), there is no avoiding the competition. Adding Facebook to that stable will give DST an even more commanding position on the Russian social nets, even if Facebook itself will become just one of the region's big social sites.
DST's leadership position also creates an opportunity for DST to create a region-wide advertising network for these social sites, but Tamas said there are no plans to create an advertising network across the DST sites, "at this stage."
Facebook's Sandberg says that the approach of taking regional investors is not new to Facebook; Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing sunk $60 million into the company in 2007.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Russian economic slide worsening
Russia's economy contracted sharply in April - shrinking by 10.5% from the same month a year ago - Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach has said.
The data came as officials were quoted as saying Russia would have a budget deficit equivalent to 9% of GDP in 2009, from an earlier 7.4% prediction.
Russia's economy had been growing thanks to high oil prices, which peaked at about $147 a barrel last summer.
But since then, the price of oil, a key export, has fallen by more than half.
The sharp drop in the economy in April came after Federal State Statistics figures showed that, on a year-on-year basis, output dropped 9.5% in the first three months of the year.
'Tough regime'
Industrial output has slowed in the wake of the global economic slowdown, and investors have withdrawn from Russia.
There are fears that poverty levels are rising - with Russian churches reporting a rise in the number of people seeking free meals as a result of the global financial crisis
On Monday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave downbeat comments on the country's economy - though he avoided giving precise statistics on how bad it had become.
However, he called for sharp cutbacks in government spending in a "shift to a regime of tough economising of budget funds".
Mr Medvedev also hit out at corrupt officials for "sucking" away state funds.
Russia's regions should be less reliant on Moscow and be prepared to fend more for themselves, he added.
The data came as officials were quoted as saying Russia would have a budget deficit equivalent to 9% of GDP in 2009, from an earlier 7.4% prediction.
Russia's economy had been growing thanks to high oil prices, which peaked at about $147 a barrel last summer.
But since then, the price of oil, a key export, has fallen by more than half.
The sharp drop in the economy in April came after Federal State Statistics figures showed that, on a year-on-year basis, output dropped 9.5% in the first three months of the year.
'Tough regime'
Industrial output has slowed in the wake of the global economic slowdown, and investors have withdrawn from Russia.
There are fears that poverty levels are rising - with Russian churches reporting a rise in the number of people seeking free meals as a result of the global financial crisis
On Monday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave downbeat comments on the country's economy - though he avoided giving precise statistics on how bad it had become.
However, he called for sharp cutbacks in government spending in a "shift to a regime of tough economising of budget funds".
Mr Medvedev also hit out at corrupt officials for "sucking" away state funds.
Russia's regions should be less reliant on Moscow and be prepared to fend more for themselves, he added.
Killings of Leader’s Foes May Test Kremlin’s Will
MOSCOW — The enemies of the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, keep turning up dead.
In September, it was Ruslan B. Yamadayev, shot while his car was stuck in Moscow traffic. In January, a former Kadyrov bodyguard named Umar S. Israilov was shot in Vienna when he stepped out to buy yogurt. Then, last week, Sulim B. Yamadayev — a brother of Ruslan’s — was shot in the parking garage of his apartment complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
This time, though, something unusual happened: Dubai’s police chief called a news conference and publicly excoriated Russian authorities for allowing the violence to continue.
The chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, said investigators had traced the killing to one of Mr. Kadyrov’s closest associates, Adam S. Delimkhanov. Mr. Delimkhanov denied any involvement.
The allegations pose a problem for leaders in the Kremlin, who installed Mr. Kadyrov as president of Chechnya and have relied on him to stamp out an insurgency that threatened to wrest the republic from Moscow’s control.
While prime minister and now president, Mr. Kadyrov has virtually eliminated the insurgency; human rights organizations and journalists have documented his regime’s use of brutal tactics, among them abduction and torture.
Authorities in Moscow apparently put few restraints on Mr. Kadyrov. And on Monday, as the accusations against Mr. Delimkhanov made headlines, observers wondered whether Russian leaders were willing, or able, to do so.
“They need him,” said Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian crime at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. “They’ve actually created a kind of Frankenstein’s monster. In the name of fighting Chechen nationalism, they’ve basically created an autonomous Chechen state.”
Sulim Yamadayev, the man killed in Dubai, was once a powerful Chechen military commander and had posed an increasing threat to Mr. Kadyrov.
After a clash between his troops and Mr. Kadyrov’s guards last year, federal authorities stripped him of his command and he left Russia for Dubai in December. Mr. Kadyrov’s government has denied responsibility for that clash.
Russian federal authorities have made no comment on the Dubai case. Because Mr. Delimkhanov was elected last year to Parliament, he has immunity from prosecution, and Russian law does not allow its citizens to be extradited.
An official in the general prosecutor’s office said Sunday that Russia would prosecute him if Dubai police provided convincing evidence.
On Monday, Mr. Kadyrov issued an angry defense of Mr. Delimkhanov.
“I must say that Adam Delimkhanov is my close associate, a friend, a brother or even my right hand,” Mr. Kadyrov said in a statement. “I take any statements concerning him personally. We will take all measures provided by Russian and international laws to hold responsible those who make slandering insinuations.”
In comments to reporters in Grozny on Monday, Mr. Kadyrov said that Sulim Yamadayev had repeatedly tried to assassinate him, at one point by poisoning a lake.
He also said there was “objective evidence” that implicated Mr. Yamadayev in a 2004 bombing that killed his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was then the president of Chechnya.
“We did all that we could to bring Sulim Yamadayev, who was involved in a series of killings, kidnappings and other severe crimes, to trial in Russia,” Mr. Kadyrov said, according to the news agency Interfax.
The scandal comes at a difficult moment for Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, who has vowed to make rule of law the foundation of his presidency. It also coincides with a much-discussed “reset” of relations between Russia and the United States, as Western leaders set aside, at least for the moment, criticism of human rights abuses in Russia.
Sergei Markedonov, head of the interethnic relations department at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis in Moscow, said that he was not convinced that Mr. Kadyrov had ordered the murder, but that the case had already raised “a lot of unpleasant questions for Russia as a whole and for Medvedev.”
“Why was Ruslan Yamadayev killed, and then Sulim Yamadayev?” Mr. Markedonov asked. “Why is there no opposition to Kadyrov? What is this regime that Moscow supports? And to what extent is Moscow able to influence it?”
Hints of a shift in the relationship came after Sulim Yamadayev died on March 31. That day, the Kremlin had seemed prepared to grant Mr. Kadyrov’s longstanding request to withdraw thousands of federal troops from Chechnya. The act would remove shipping and transportation restrictions imposed as part of a counterterrorist operation when the second Chechen war began nearly a decade ago.
Less than a week later, however, as news of Mr. Yamadayev’s death began to circulate, Russia’s National Antiterrorist Committee announced that the restrictions and troops would remain in place, citing a continuing danger of violence in the region. Officials said the murder had nothing to do with the committee’s decision.
“It does appear that at this point in time the Kremlin does want to keep some control over Kadyrov and his team,” said Tatyana Lokshina, a Chechnya expert with Human Rights Watch in Moscow. “Ending the counterterrorist operation, getting multitudes of troops out and removing all the restrictions would give Kadyrov even more freedom — and he certainly does have enough.”
But in recent years, she added, Moscow has made little attempt to interfere with Mr. Kadyrov’s tactics, “as long as he kept the insurgency suppressed.”
With Kremlin backing, Mr. Kadyrov has accomplished in just a few years what few independent experts thought would be possible in decades. He has winnowed the insurgency by killing off most of the rebel leaders and granting amnesty to militants in exchange for loyalty. Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, has been largely rebuilt. Cafes and restaurants are bustling, electricity is more or less regular and people stroll along newly built avenues.
“They built up Kadyrov, and from their point of view, he’s doing what he is supposed to be doing,” Mr. Galeotti, of N.Y.U., said. “Considering the rise of chaos in the rest of the North Caucasus, the irony is that Chechnya is a haven of peace.”
International attention has drifted away from Chechnya since then. Mr. Markedonov, a specialist in the north Caucasus, said he had not heard the republic discussed so avidly in the international news media for years.
He compared the Yamadayev case to the furor that resulted in 2007 when British authorities pressed Russia to extradite Andrei K. Lugovoi, a former K.G.B. agent, in the killing of a former spy, Alexander V. Litvinenko, who died in London after ingesting polonium 210, a rare and toxic radioactive isotope.
“Already, in our media,” Mr. Markedonov said, “they have started to call it ‘Litvinenko 2’ or ‘Lugovoi 2.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/europe/07chechnya.html
In September, it was Ruslan B. Yamadayev, shot while his car was stuck in Moscow traffic. In January, a former Kadyrov bodyguard named Umar S. Israilov was shot in Vienna when he stepped out to buy yogurt. Then, last week, Sulim B. Yamadayev — a brother of Ruslan’s — was shot in the parking garage of his apartment complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
This time, though, something unusual happened: Dubai’s police chief called a news conference and publicly excoriated Russian authorities for allowing the violence to continue.
The chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, said investigators had traced the killing to one of Mr. Kadyrov’s closest associates, Adam S. Delimkhanov. Mr. Delimkhanov denied any involvement.
The allegations pose a problem for leaders in the Kremlin, who installed Mr. Kadyrov as president of Chechnya and have relied on him to stamp out an insurgency that threatened to wrest the republic from Moscow’s control.
While prime minister and now president, Mr. Kadyrov has virtually eliminated the insurgency; human rights organizations and journalists have documented his regime’s use of brutal tactics, among them abduction and torture.
Authorities in Moscow apparently put few restraints on Mr. Kadyrov. And on Monday, as the accusations against Mr. Delimkhanov made headlines, observers wondered whether Russian leaders were willing, or able, to do so.
“They need him,” said Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian crime at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. “They’ve actually created a kind of Frankenstein’s monster. In the name of fighting Chechen nationalism, they’ve basically created an autonomous Chechen state.”
Sulim Yamadayev, the man killed in Dubai, was once a powerful Chechen military commander and had posed an increasing threat to Mr. Kadyrov.
After a clash between his troops and Mr. Kadyrov’s guards last year, federal authorities stripped him of his command and he left Russia for Dubai in December. Mr. Kadyrov’s government has denied responsibility for that clash.
Russian federal authorities have made no comment on the Dubai case. Because Mr. Delimkhanov was elected last year to Parliament, he has immunity from prosecution, and Russian law does not allow its citizens to be extradited.
An official in the general prosecutor’s office said Sunday that Russia would prosecute him if Dubai police provided convincing evidence.
On Monday, Mr. Kadyrov issued an angry defense of Mr. Delimkhanov.
“I must say that Adam Delimkhanov is my close associate, a friend, a brother or even my right hand,” Mr. Kadyrov said in a statement. “I take any statements concerning him personally. We will take all measures provided by Russian and international laws to hold responsible those who make slandering insinuations.”
In comments to reporters in Grozny on Monday, Mr. Kadyrov said that Sulim Yamadayev had repeatedly tried to assassinate him, at one point by poisoning a lake.
He also said there was “objective evidence” that implicated Mr. Yamadayev in a 2004 bombing that killed his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was then the president of Chechnya.
“We did all that we could to bring Sulim Yamadayev, who was involved in a series of killings, kidnappings and other severe crimes, to trial in Russia,” Mr. Kadyrov said, according to the news agency Interfax.
The scandal comes at a difficult moment for Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, who has vowed to make rule of law the foundation of his presidency. It also coincides with a much-discussed “reset” of relations between Russia and the United States, as Western leaders set aside, at least for the moment, criticism of human rights abuses in Russia.
Sergei Markedonov, head of the interethnic relations department at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis in Moscow, said that he was not convinced that Mr. Kadyrov had ordered the murder, but that the case had already raised “a lot of unpleasant questions for Russia as a whole and for Medvedev.”
“Why was Ruslan Yamadayev killed, and then Sulim Yamadayev?” Mr. Markedonov asked. “Why is there no opposition to Kadyrov? What is this regime that Moscow supports? And to what extent is Moscow able to influence it?”
Hints of a shift in the relationship came after Sulim Yamadayev died on March 31. That day, the Kremlin had seemed prepared to grant Mr. Kadyrov’s longstanding request to withdraw thousands of federal troops from Chechnya. The act would remove shipping and transportation restrictions imposed as part of a counterterrorist operation when the second Chechen war began nearly a decade ago.
Less than a week later, however, as news of Mr. Yamadayev’s death began to circulate, Russia’s National Antiterrorist Committee announced that the restrictions and troops would remain in place, citing a continuing danger of violence in the region. Officials said the murder had nothing to do with the committee’s decision.
“It does appear that at this point in time the Kremlin does want to keep some control over Kadyrov and his team,” said Tatyana Lokshina, a Chechnya expert with Human Rights Watch in Moscow. “Ending the counterterrorist operation, getting multitudes of troops out and removing all the restrictions would give Kadyrov even more freedom — and he certainly does have enough.”
But in recent years, she added, Moscow has made little attempt to interfere with Mr. Kadyrov’s tactics, “as long as he kept the insurgency suppressed.”
With Kremlin backing, Mr. Kadyrov has accomplished in just a few years what few independent experts thought would be possible in decades. He has winnowed the insurgency by killing off most of the rebel leaders and granting amnesty to militants in exchange for loyalty. Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, has been largely rebuilt. Cafes and restaurants are bustling, electricity is more or less regular and people stroll along newly built avenues.
“They built up Kadyrov, and from their point of view, he’s doing what he is supposed to be doing,” Mr. Galeotti, of N.Y.U., said. “Considering the rise of chaos in the rest of the North Caucasus, the irony is that Chechnya is a haven of peace.”
International attention has drifted away from Chechnya since then. Mr. Markedonov, a specialist in the north Caucasus, said he had not heard the republic discussed so avidly in the international news media for years.
He compared the Yamadayev case to the furor that resulted in 2007 when British authorities pressed Russia to extradite Andrei K. Lugovoi, a former K.G.B. agent, in the killing of a former spy, Alexander V. Litvinenko, who died in London after ingesting polonium 210, a rare and toxic radioactive isotope.
“Already, in our media,” Mr. Markedonov said, “they have started to call it ‘Litvinenko 2’ or ‘Lugovoi 2.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/europe/07chechnya.html
Friday, 8 August 2008
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
