I just read in the Wall Street Journal that Yuri Milner, the CEO of Digital Sky Technologies (DST), is in talks with AOL to buy its instant messaging service (ICQ), which has 12.6 million users in Germany and 8.4 million users in Russia.  The deal with AOL could land somewhere between $200-$300 million, which could be the next blockbuster tech deal to come after DST’s unprecedented investment in Facebook, which was also rumored to be around $200 million for 2% of the company.

I think that Milner and DST are a fascinating business story, and it’s interesting to watch this one enterprising and innovative Russian businessman quietly become a global leader on the frontiers of a new industry.  Milner has a magic touch in making money out of these different technologies:  his company already boasts Russia’s biggest email provider (mail.ru), a successful job hunting platform, and a virtual clone of Facebook known as Vkontakte.ru, which unlike its predecessor, actually makes a profit.  Given Putin and Medvedev’s frequent harping on about how the state and the state alone must lead Russia out of its reliance on raw materials exports and force the diversification of the economy, Milner’s success story is an example of a counter-narrative.  When the government can finally get out of their way, Russian people are capable of competing on the the world’s stage.

But there are also some concerns behind DST’s surge to become Russia’s best internet company.