Elon Musk faces questions about his ties to two Russian oligarchs after a court document revealed investors in the billionaire’s acquisition of Twitter, now X.
The reveal came after a federal court forced Musk to disclose shareholders for X as part of the ongoing legal battle with former Twitter employees claiming Musk violated their arbitration agreements by withholding certain payments after he bought the social media platform for $44 billion. Disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and Silicon Valley investors including Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen and Bill Ackman were also named as early investors in the acquisition.
Among the investors, venture capital firm 8VC is drawing criticism for its ties to Denis Aven and Jack Moszkowicz, the sons of Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Vadim Moszkowicz. Both have strong political and economic ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men have also been subject to Western sanctions due to their associations with the Kremlin amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Since his acquisition of the platform, Musk has been outspoken regarding his views of Russia as well as the ongoing war, at times calling for the U.S. government to withhold aid to Ukraine.
X users criticized the platform’s owner following the investor reveal, noting that the court filing confirmed their belief that Musk’s ties to Putin are significant and possibly impacting the platform’s functionality.
Incredible… Putin’s henchmen helped Musk to acquire Twitter.
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) August 24, 2024
That explains a lot: the position of Musk on Crimea… the refusal at some point to let Ukraine use Starlink… the support for Trump…
Time for the US to wake up ! https://t.co/R2dSJXR781
My tweets are all aimed at the two sanctioned Russian oligarchs that loaned Elon Musk the money to buy twitter so he could protect their money laundering idiot and Putin’s bitch, Donald J. Trump. That’s the gig. There’s no other reason to be here.
— NoelCaslerComedy🌙 (@caslernoel) August 26, 2024
5/ Comrade Musk is not a fighter for the freedom of speech, but an enabler of russian genocide against Ukraine, sponsored by russia itself.
— Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇦 (@rshereme) August 25, 2024
Who owns this platform?
— Andrew Chakhoyan 🇺🇦 (@ChakhoyanAndrew) August 25, 2024
Well, Elon Musk just told us 🤦🏻♂️
To no one’s surprise, amongst the owners are 2 Russian oligarchs—close to Putin & sanctioned over the invasion of 🇺🇦—Petr Aven & Vadim Moshkovich
One day we’ll learn to distinguish Free Speech from Paid Lies pic.twitter.com/6dqvsuv1hS
We have been telling you this. It's crazy that everything surrounding Trump and his surrogates leads to Putin. It's not a conspiracy, it's fact. https://t.co/IHherT0Y2c pic.twitter.com/ZRpbQ3jZpM
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 26, 2024
