Russian 'ex-oligarch' reportedly backing a new DeFi project

Russian businessman and self-styled "Ex-oligarch" Aleksandr Lebedev is backing a new decentralized finance project that aims to compete across a broad spectrum of financial products.

As reported by Russian financial publication RBC, Lebedev is providing the initial funding for a DeFi startup under the working name of InDeFinEco, standing for Independent Decentralized Finance Ecosystem.

Lebedev said to have invested between $10 and $15 million as initial funding.

The project appears to be combining several DeFi primitives into one, with a lending platform similar to Compound or Aave being the primary product.

According to Lebedev, "There are currently no analogous ecosystems" among DeFi projects, which may well be true given InDeFinEco's particular combination.

Aleksandr Lebedev is known as one of Russia's oligarchs, beginning his career - like many others - in the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Lebedev acquired the National Reserve Bank of Russia, which grew to become one of the largest banks in the country.

Before 2012 his net worth was estimated in the billions of dollars, but an investigation by the Russian Central Bank and FSB crippled his bank's fortunes, which was sold in 2019 after a dramatic balance sheet decline.

Lebedev is also the owner of British publication The Independent and a major stakeholder of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, traditionally aligned with the Russian opposition.

Lebedev now styles himself as an "Ex-oligarch" and regularly denounces corruption in Russia.

Lebedev would join Vladimir Potanin, Russia's richest man, in the short list of businessmen publicly involved with blockchain.