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Note that all of these companies are also under the umbrella of Tesonet, a Lithuanian VC firm also headed by Tomas Okmanas (Tom Okman in TFA). Their flagship in

Note that all of these companies are also under the umbrella of Tesonet, a Lithuanian VC firm also headed by Tomas Okmanas (Tom Okman in TFA). Their flagship investments are Nord Security, Hostinger, Oxylabs, Surfshark, Decodo, Mediatech, and nexos.ai - all closely related business models around proxying. They don't seem to have Russian ties: "In 2022, CyberCare opened an office in Lviv, Ukraine. Although planning for the move started before the war, according to Dainius Vanagas, CEO of CyberCare, one of the reasons why it was followed through was a desire to help Ukraine rebuild."[0] They also donated money to help arm Ukraine. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesonet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesonet

pessimizer 1y ago
[flagged]
- verteu 1y ago
  Russiagate was not a "fictional narrative," as a cursory amount of research will reveal. > The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released their report in five volumes between July 2019 and August 2020. The committee concluded that the intelligence community assessment alleging Russian interference was "coherent and well-constructed", and that the assessment was "proper", learning from analysts that there was "no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions".[11][12] The report found that the Russian government had engaged in an "extensive campaign" to sabotage the election in favor of Trump, which included assistance from some of Trump's own advisers.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  Our last President was haunted by completely unverified claims of business ties with Ukraine. Someone in UKR clearly tried to buy influence via his son, but all the force of Fox News and the GOP together couldn't produce one single sticky-note worth of evidence tying it to any success. Painting "armed invasion" as "Russian presence" is like calling "stabbing someone in an alley" a "medical procedure". We get it; you love Mother Russia.
ashirviskas 1y ago
Don't forget ProtonVPN links to Tesonet, which they're trying hard to "debunk" (though no clue why, I have nothing against Tesonet). They only shared employees and accidentally signed apps with the same certificates, but are "totally unrelated". Their PR people are already on this thread. If they didn't try so hard to fight it, people might care less.
- rasengan 1y ago
  Back when I was running PIA, they threatened me a significant amount just for pointing these facts out. Now that I launched a verifiable VPN, they are once again sending legal threats [1]. [1] https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust
  - getcrunk 1y ago
    So did you sell pia? Why won’t you sell your next venture ?
    - rasengan 1y ago
      I did not sell PIA. I entered into a merger agreement to create a publicly owned privacy company. Without getting into detail, I left the company on principle receiving only 1/3rd of the value for the shares.
      - getcrunk 1y ago
        Btw I used to love pia, I think I’ll check your new one out!
        causality0 1y ago
        Used to love? What changed? PIA hasn't always had the best performance but they are on the list of VPNs who were subpoenaed and had no data to give the court.
wraptile 1y ago
I used to work at Tesonet (as software engineer) and I'm not familiar with corporate politics / ownerships but they're lovely people that would 100% walk out if there were some real Russian ties involved. Lithuania is a really small country and IT has been a huge economic strategy since early 00s as a way to become economically independent specifically because of Russia and it worked out really well.
- nerdsniper 1y ago
  I have a good friend from Lithuania, who has told me so many amazing/wonderful/superlative things about the country he grew up in and loves very dearly, as well as its people. I can't wait to visit someday. Unfortunately, he only has Russian and American citizenship, so he can't purchase real estate there currently, but luckily most of Lithuania's restrictions have been very common-sense (applying only to people who frequently travel between Russia and Lithuania). From what I can tell, Tesonet seems like a very patriotic group (as much as a corporation can be personified at all), and genuinely puts resources, both human and financial, towards raising up the local communities. It's interesting to me that Tesonet has concentrated the most popular VPNs under one roof and is involved in so many companies that could be described as "dual-use" (white hat/black hat) such as residential/mobile proxies, ai-powered scraping, etc. It tells me that Tesonet has a very sharp understanding of gray-hat landscapes. It does seem like their portfolio could be leveraged as a valuable asset to any powerful interest, regardless if they are benevolent or malicious or misguided. I mentioned Tesonet's stance towards Ukraine because Lithuania has a number of wealthy ex-soviet/Russian citizens and business-owners with differing politics, and wanted to clarify that for any readers who might wonder. Additionally, I've always been very impressed with Estonia's digital infrastructure and Ukrainian software engineering - not just JetBrains but also other vendors that I've worked with personally. Seems like there are a lot of highly skilled people concentrated in your region.
  - crossroadsguy 1y ago
    I couldn't really get that segue from Lithuania to Estonia. Did you mean to type "Lithuania" in the last paragraph as well? Here.. > Additionally, I've always been very impressed with Estonia's … Before that you were talking about Lithuania exclusively. And then: > … Estonia's digital infrastructure and Ukrainian software engineering - not just JetBrains … I think it was founded in CZ and is now HQed in NL. Right? A typo? Or there's some relation between the two countries and whether JetBrains has some history with these two that is missing here? (I am not trying to nitpick, really interested in knowing whether there's some angle/twist here, since the post itself is about hidden connections and what not).
SV_BubbleTime 1y ago
After seeing the front end and the tiniest bit of backend on CrowdStrike and why they’re in Ukraine… I wouldn’t say any company with offices there makes me feel at ease. It’s not better.
fy20 1y ago
Calling Tesonet a VC firm isn't really an accurate description of their history. They started as an IT services company (which they still do), then split out internal services into effectively separate companies (e.g. CyberCare was originally built to manage customer support for NordVPN). Now they have got more money than they know what to do with so are making VC investments.
moontear 1y ago
"all of these companies" are you sure? Did you check the VPN relationships diagram that is within the article? Tesonet is listed and linked.

pessimizer 1y ago

[flagged]

verteu 1y ago
Russiagate was not a "fictional narrative," as a cursory amount of research will reveal. > The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released their report in five volumes between July 2019 and August 2020. The committee concluded that the intelligence community assessment alleging Russian interference was "coherent and well-constructed", and that the assessment was "proper", learning from analysts that there was "no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions".[11][12] The report found that the Russian government had engaged in an "extensive campaign" to sabotage the election in favor of Trump, which included assistance from some of Trump's own advisers.
IAmBroom 1y ago
Our last President was haunted by completely unverified claims of business ties with Ukraine. Someone in UKR clearly tried to buy influence via his son, but all the force of Fox News and the GOP together couldn't produce one single sticky-note worth of evidence tying it to any success. Painting "armed invasion" as "Russian presence" is like calling "stabbing someone in an alley" a "medical procedure". We get it; you love Mother Russia.

ashirviskas 1y ago

Don't forget ProtonVPN links to Tesonet, which they're trying hard to "debunk" (though no clue why, I have nothing against Tesonet). They only shared employees and accidentally signed apps with the same certificates, but are "totally unrelated". Their PR people are already on this thread. If they didn't try so hard to fight it, people might care less.

rasengan 1y ago
Back when I was running PIA, they threatened me a significant amount just for pointing these facts out. Now that I launched a verifiable VPN, they are once again sending legal threats [1]. [1] https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/Verified-Privacy-vs-Trust
- getcrunk 1y ago
  So did you sell pia? Why won’t you sell your next venture ?
  - rasengan 1y ago
    I did not sell PIA. I entered into a merger agreement to create a publicly owned privacy company. Without getting into detail, I left the company on principle receiving only 1/3rd of the value for the shares.
    - getcrunk 1y ago
      Btw I used to love pia, I think I’ll check your new one out!
      - causality0 1y ago
        Used to love? What changed? PIA hasn't always had the best performance but they are on the list of VPNs who were subpoenaed and had no data to give the court.

wraptile 1y ago

I used to work at Tesonet (as software engineer) and I'm not familiar with corporate politics / ownerships but they're lovely people that would 100% walk out if there were some real Russian ties involved. Lithuania is a really small country and IT has been a huge economic strategy since early 00s as a way to become economically independent specifically because of Russia and it worked out really well.

nerdsniper 1y ago
I have a good friend from Lithuania, who has told me so many amazing/wonderful/superlative things about the country he grew up in and loves very dearly, as well as its people. I can't wait to visit someday. Unfortunately, he only has Russian and American citizenship, so he can't purchase real estate there currently, but luckily most of Lithuania's restrictions have been very common-sense (applying only to people who frequently travel between Russia and Lithuania). From what I can tell, Tesonet seems like a very patriotic group (as much as a corporation can be personified at all), and genuinely puts resources, both human and financial, towards raising up the local communities. It's interesting to me that Tesonet has concentrated the most popular VPNs under one roof and is involved in so many companies that could be described as "dual-use" (white hat/black hat) such as residential/mobile proxies, ai-powered scraping, etc. It tells me that Tesonet has a very sharp understanding of gray-hat landscapes. It does seem like their portfolio could be leveraged as a valuable asset to any powerful interest, regardless if they are benevolent or malicious or misguided. I mentioned Tesonet's stance towards Ukraine because Lithuania has a number of wealthy ex-soviet/Russian citizens and business-owners with differing politics, and wanted to clarify that for any readers who might wonder. Additionally, I've always been very impressed with Estonia's digital infrastructure and Ukrainian software engineering - not just JetBrains but also other vendors that I've worked with personally. Seems like there are a lot of highly skilled people concentrated in your region.
- crossroadsguy 1y ago
  I couldn't really get that segue from Lithuania to Estonia. Did you mean to type "Lithuania" in the last paragraph as well? Here.. > Additionally, I've always been very impressed with Estonia's … Before that you were talking about Lithuania exclusively. And then: > … Estonia's digital infrastructure and Ukrainian software engineering - not just JetBrains … I think it was founded in CZ and is now HQed in NL. Right? A typo? Or there's some relation between the two countries and whether JetBrains has some history with these two that is missing here? (I am not trying to nitpick, really interested in knowing whether there's some angle/twist here, since the post itself is about hidden connections and what not).

SV_BubbleTime 1y ago

After seeing the front end and the tiniest bit of backend on CrowdStrike and why they’re in Ukraine… I wouldn’t say any company with offices there makes me feel at ease. It’s not better.

fy20 1y ago

Calling Tesonet a VC firm isn't really an accurate description of their history. They started as an IT services company (which they still do), then split out internal services into effectively separate companies (e.g. CyberCare was originally built to manage customer support for NordVPN). Now they have got more money than they know what to do with so are making VC investments.

moontear 1y ago

"all of these companies" are you sure? Did you check the VPN relationships diagram that is within the article? Tesonet is listed and linked.