Insult to Injury for Sanctioned Russians Trolled by Nets Fansite

(Bloomberg) -- As if being placed under U.S. sanctions wasn’t enough to ruin their Friday, Russian billionaires Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg found themselves the target of some gleeful trolling on the Twitter account of a fan website for the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA club owned by fellow oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov.

The @NetsDaily account, which usually sticks to coverage of the basketball team’s activities, couldn’t resist rubbing a little salt in the wounds after Deripaska and Vekselberg were both placed on the U.S. Treasury’s latest Russia blacklist along with Rusal, the aluminum giant founded by Deripaska.

Prokhorov agreed in February to sell a stake in Rusal to Vekselberg, whose Renova investment group was also hit by the new U.S. measures. Shares in Rusal slumped in Moscow by the most in three years after the sanctions were announced.

Vekselberg’s spokesman didn’t return calls or messages seeking comment. Rusal said in a statement that it “regrets” the company’s inclusion in the sanctions list.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin

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