Ukrainian-born billionaire under investigation by special counsel gave thousands to NH politicians

A number of prominent New Hampshire politicians, on both sides of the aisle, received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a Ukrainian-born billionaire who is reportedly under investigation by Robert Mueller’s team for his 2016 campaign donations to political funds controlled by Donald Trump.

In September, ABC News reported the special counsel’s investigation had begun looking into nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from three Americans with Russian business connections. One of the businessmen is Leonard Blavatnik, a dual citizen of the U.S. and U.K., who is ranked by Forbes as the 40th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $21 billion.

After emigrating to the U.S. in 1978 when he was twenty-one years old, Blavatnik obtained U.S. citizenship and earned advanced degrees from Columbia and Harvard Business School. He then returned to Russia, where he made his fortune in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, becoming business partners with Russian oligarchs who now have close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

Viktor Vekselberg, Blavatnik’s classmate from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers, has been named the richest man in Russia and reportedly holds frequent meetings with Putin. Blavatnik and Vekselberg built the second largest aluminum business in Russia and then merged it with UC Rusal, Russia’s largest.

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