MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Eugene Kaspersky, the founder and the chief executive officer of Kaspersky Lab, is not an oligarch and his inclusion into the ‘Kremlin Report’ by the US Treasury is groundless, the Russian antivirus solutions provider said on Tuesday.
All individuals in the Russian Forbes List with the net worth above $1 bln were labeled as ‘oligarchs’ in the report and its authors did not discriminate between ways of earning these fortunes, the company said.
"Kaspersky Lab disagrees with Yevgeny’s inclusion into the list of oligarchs, because this term means having big capital employed to exert political influence. Kaspersky Lab has no political connections and does not wield political influence in any country, including Russia, and cannot be regarded as an ‘oligarch’s vehicle." The personal fortune of Yevgeny consists of his business, an apartment in Moscow, and a personal car. Kaspersky Lab earns more than 82% of its revenues outside Russia,' the company said.
Eugene Kaspersky also commented on the situation in Twitter.
"It is a vicious idea to label any successful businessman from the Forbes List as an oligarch. For example, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Mark Zuckerberg would hardly agree with it," Kaspersky wrote.
The US Treasury Department published the unclassified portion of the "Kremlin report" on Monday that includes all members of the Russian government and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the leadership of the presidential administration and CEOs of state corporations and banks, and also businessmen with a net worth of $1 billion or more. The list, which has 210 names, is divided into several sections - the presidential administration, the cabinet of ministers, as well as "political leaders" and "oligarchs." It also has a classified annex with "additional information."
The US Treasury Department claims this is not a sanctions list and no restrictions are being slapped on those mentioned in the document,.