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bne:Funds
Fort Ross Ventures launches $200mn fund to help US startups enter Russian market
Jane Kuhuk in Kyiv of Ukraine Digital News
US-based Fort Ross Ventures announced a $200mn fund for US startups interested in the Russian market reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
Formerly known as Money Time, this venture fund is committed to support the “exponential success” of US tech startups by “leveraging the potential of the enormous Russian marketplace.”
Fort Ross will target projects in the areas of fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and ecommerce. Startups will benefit from financial support, as well as “advisory services aimed at helping startups understand the culture, politics, and
financial regulations necessary to operate in Russia,” reports VentureBeat.
“Fort Ross brings together Silicon Valley venture expertise with an extensive network of relationships across Russia’s largest commercial organizations. We help startups navigate and thrive in this lucrative, tech-savvy market while establishing an invaluable foothold for global growth,” said Victor Orlovski, the fund’s managing partner in an official statement.
Previously Orlovski was CTO at Alfa Bank and Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank.
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Putin promises guns and butter in state of the nation speech
Ben Aris in Berlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave one of the most aggressive speeches of his career on March 1, promising the population a lot more “butter” and explicitly targeting the USA with “guns” if Washington continued to bully his country with sanctions and threaten it with missiles.
The speech was widely anticipated as the show-
Slaying of journalist sparks Slovak coalition crisis
bne IntelliNews
Pressure is mounting on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico after the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, whose posthumously published article alleged mafia infiltration of his government.
Bela Bugar, the head of the junior coalition party Most-Hid, which holds three ministries in
Putin promised to increase the size of the economy by 50% in his next term of office.
case for the likely policies that will dominate
his next six-year presidential term. Russia goes to the polls on March 18 in an election that Putin is expected to win without a significant challenge.
But no-one was expecting the multimedia presen-
See page 2
Interior Minister Robert Kalinak has been attacked for his alleged links
to controversial businessmen.
Fico’s government, called for the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak, who has been under fire over a separate tax fraud scandal, the Basternak affair. Most-Hid argues only a new interior minister can investigate Kuciak’s
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