Zuckerberg adds Russian PM Medvedev as new Facebook friend

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg has a new Facebook friend.

The founder and chief executive of the world’s most popular social networking site met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on Monday.

Officially, Zuckerberg was in the Russian capital to discuss cooperation in IT technology with local start-ups.

The firm hopes his visit will raise Facebook’s profile in Russia where it lags well behind VKontakte, a locally-developed rival.

But business daily Vedomosti quoted Russian tech executives as saying Zuckerberg’s trip had another purpose: to lure Russia’s best programming talent to Silicon Valley.

Facebook has not commented on the report.

If confirmed, such plans would go against Medvedev’s ambitions to make Russia’s economy more technology-savvy and boost innovation.

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