In mid-December VK Company, a leading Russian Internet group previously known as Mail.ru Group, appointed Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of a top Kremlin official, as its new chief executive.
The LSE-listed group controls Russia’s top social networks (VKontakte and OK) and a variety of other internet businesses. The move followed the takeover of VK by companies affiliated with state-owned gas giant Gazprom.
As First Deputy Chief of staff in the presidential administration, Vladimir Kiriyenko’s father, Sergei, is widely seen as the Kremlin’s unofficial domestic policy czar. In the late 1990s, under Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, he served as prime minister — displaying an image of a pro-democracy politician — but was quickly dismissed in August 1998 for failing to avoid the country’s default.
Kiriyenko Jr. started a wunderkind career at 22 as he became chairman of Volga, a local television company in his home region of Nizhny Novgorod, immediately after graduating from university.
Making his way in the financial and technology sectors, Kiriyenko Jr. headed, in 2013, a Moscow VC fund called Titanium Investments. Starting from 2016, he held top executive positions at Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, where he played a notable role in implementing Russia’s “sovereign Internet” policies.
Read the official announcement of Vladimir Kiriyenko’s appointment on VK Company’s site as well as reports from Meduza and The Moscow Times.
