The venture capital firm DST Global issued the following statement after The New York Times published an article on Yuri Milner called “Kremlin Cash Behind Billionaire’s Twitter and Facebook Investments”:

Certain contextual information is highly relevant to the Times’ readers’ understanding of Mr. Milner’s work and, in particular, DST Global’s investments in Facebook and Twitter.

To begin with, there is nothing unusual about an international investment firm — DST Global is headquartered in Hong Kong — accepting investments from international investors, including sovereigns. Also, it is worth remembering that Russia-U.S. relations were much better in 2009 and 2011 when these investments were made following Secretary of State Clinton pressing the “Reset Button” in Moscow in 2009.

DST Global’s investments in Facebook and Twitter were just two of the more than 30 internet companies around the world that DST Global’s funds have invested in — including Airbnb, Spotify, JD.com, Zalando and Alibaba. Since 2009, DST Global has invested $7 billion in the consumer internet sector, with a majority being invested in non-U.S. companies — and with less than 5% coming from VTB Bank. VTB Bank was the only Russian government institution that invested in any DST Global funds.

In addition, all investors in DST Global — including Mr. Usmanov, VTB Bank, and a number of sovereign wealth funds from all over the world — are passive investors. That means they are simply committing funds to be invested by DST Global in companies of DST Global’s choosing, and they have no influence over what companies DST Global chooses to invest in or any other decision-making.

DST Global, for its part, was also a passive investor in Facebook and Twitter, meaning that it did not seek any board seats or have any influence on these companies’ operations and management. Moreover, there were dozens of DST Global investors making up the funds that invested in Facebook and Twitter — Mr. Usmanov was just one of 50 passive investors in DST Global’s fund that invested in Facebook, and VTB Bank was one of 40 passive investors in the DST Global fund that invested in Twitter.

Finally, DST Global divested its position in Facebook in 2013 and in Twitter in 2014, shortly after each of those companies’ initial public offerings and well before the 2016 U.S. elections.