Short answers, pulled from the story.
Yuri Milner is a Soviet-born, Israeli entrepreneur, investor, and physicist born on the 11th of November 1961 in Moscow. He is best known for founding DST Global, co-founding Mail.ru Group, making an early $200 million investment in Facebook in 2009, and establishing the Breakthrough Prize, the world's largest scientific award at $3 million per laureate.
In January 2009, Milner met Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in Palo Alto. On the 26th of May 2009, Milner's firm DST purchased a 1.96% stake in Facebook for $200 million, with no board seat demanded in return.
The Breakthrough Prize is an international scientific award established by Yuri and Julia Milner in July 2012, covering fundamental physics, life sciences, and mathematics. Each laureate receives $3 million, making it the largest scientific award in the world. Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Anne Wojcicki, and Mark Zuckerberg joined as co-founders the following year.
Breakthrough Initiatives is a scientific program launched by Milner in July 2015 to investigate the question of life in the universe. He announced it at the Royal Society in London alongside Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Frank Drake, Geoff Marcy, and Ann Druyan.
Milner renounced his Russian citizenship in August 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He has stated he has not visited Russia since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and that DST Global has received no investment from a Russian institution since 2011.
DST Global is an investment firm founded by Yuri Milner that serves as the vehicle for his international technology investments. Its portfolio has included stakes in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon, as well as participation in funding rounds for companies including Otoy and Habito.