According to rumors, four Russian oligarchs, three of whom included in the Kremlin list issued by the Donald Trump administration in January have participated in the private presale campaign of Telegram.

According to the Russian-speaking Telegram-channel "All about blockchain and digital economy", the list of Russian billionaires, who invested in Telegram's presale, includes early investor in Facebook and Twitter Yuri Milner ($20 million), Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich' son - Arkady ($7 million), Russian oligarch with reportedly close Kremlin ties Alisher Usmanov ($7 million), Russian tycoon and stakeholder of Alfa Group and X5 Retail Group Mikhail Fridman ($5 million). Their participation in the Telegram's presale campaign still needs to be confirmed. Yuri Milner, Mikhail Fridman, Alisher Usmanov and Arkady Abramovich's father, billionaire Roman Abramovich, were included in Washington's recent "Kremlin list," which consisted of 220 persons named for “closeness to the Russian regime” and the president Vladimir Putin.

According to earlier reports, Telegram's public ICO is scheduled to be launched in March. The presale phase ended last week.

This channel is founded by Ani Aslanyan, the member of the Expert Council for Development economy of the new technological generation at the committee on economic policy, industry, innovative development and entrepreneurship of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Apart from these billionaires, two Russian businessmen confirmed their stakes in Telegram's blockchain platform. The general director and main shareholder of QIWI and the head of the Association of Financial Technologies Sergey Solonin took part in Telegram's ICO, which seems to become the largest token coin crowdsale in the history of the emerging cryptocurrency market.

Solonin bought a stake of Gram tokens worth $17 million, Solonin's spokesperson detailed.

"I'm interested in this new type of blockchain. It is my way to deal with such projects: I make personal investments, that's how I focus on them, it's more interesting for me to act like that," Solonin explained later in Sochi, where he takes part as a speaker in various panel discussions at the Russian Investment Forum.

Solonin also added that Russia could not grant Telegram with appropriate business conditions, which resulted in Telegram's migration to other jurisdictions. "Unfortunately, Telegram could be a Russian company; I think if it had not created certain conditions that prevented it from being Russian. It's very sad; I personally would very much like Telegram to be a Russian company," he added.

Russian food producer Wimm-Bill-Dann founder David Yakobashvili is another businessman who officially confirmed his participation in Telegra's presale, claiming to have invested $10 million.