Free Republic

In case you’ve never heard of Len Blavatnik (more properly, Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik), he is a Ukrainian-born businessman and a noted philanthropist. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his philanthropy work in 2017. He is also Jewish. When his family emigrated to the United States in 1978, he studied engineering at Columbia University, later graduating from Harvard Business School. He went on to be fabulously successful and Forbes this year estimated his net worth at $29.6 billion. He has also been one of Harvard’s most generous donors. But now, as with many other vastly wealthy alumni, Blavatnik...

A Soviet-born billionaire linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs reportedly donated the maximum amount to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D-NY) campaign, according to the New York Post. Meanwhile, Hochul said in a social media post on Wednesday officials were “taking aggressive action to ensure the power of the New York economy holds Putin and his oligarchs accountable”:

One of the attorneys general who has sought probes against the Trump administration has accepted large individual campaign donations from an energy tycoon with connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has accepted more than $60,000 in small donations from Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born energy billionaire with ties to Russian oligarchs, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation examination of the Democrat’s financial disclosure reports . Blavatnik plowed $25,000 into Schneiderman’s political war chest in January of 2017 – his generous contribution was one of the largest individual donations given to the New York Democrat...