Putin’s revenge: Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov says goodbye to Russia and his bank for criticizing the war

the russian oligarch Oleg Tinkovwhich last week lost its digital bank Tinkoff for having criticized Russia for the war in Ukrainehas said goodbye to Russia after being forced by the Kremlin, he says, to get rid of the entity for much less than its value and being threatened.

Tinkov critical of the war Russia with his Ukrainian neighbors, he speaks of the “dehumanization” of the Russian regime and affirms that “Ukraine will win because good always wins over evil.”

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“Goodbye Tinkoff Bank, goodbye Russia”he points out in a farewell message posted on the social network Instagramin which he states that “he has nothing left in Russia and that is bad for Russia.”

Tinkov he sold last week the 35% he had in the share capital of the bank, the second largest private bank in Russia in terms of active retail clients (some 20 million, according to the entity), to Interros, owned by Russian metal tycoon Vladimir Potanin.

The 54-year-old oligarch himself assured The New York Times that it was a “desperate sale, a forced sale” promoted by the Kremlin. “I couldn’t argue with the price,” she said.

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In his message he stated that “You can’t make money in a country that is at war with a neighbor, killing civilians and children.”

Oleg Tinkov was the owner of the Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team.

The billionaire, whose fortune was valued by Forbes magazine at about 9,400 million dollars, explained that he takes the Tinkoff and La Datcha brands, of luxury accommodation, out of the country, so as not to stain them with “the blood of Russian soldiers and citizens of Ukraine”. .

“Ukraine will win because good always wins over evil”, assured the businessman, who created the bank in 2006.

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Tinkov He also explained that he has received threats despite suffering from leukemia.

“The desire to punish someone just for an opinion, my honest opinion, speaks to the ultimate dehumanization of the regime”Held.

Until he fell from grace, Tinkov managed to coexist with the Kremlin, in which he never set foot, he claimed.

Already four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 the businessman wrote that “in Ukraine, innocent people die every day. That is unthinkable and unacceptable.”

But the turning point apparently came on April 19.

That day he stated in a message that he does not see a single beneficiary “of this crazy war” and that “innocent people and soldiers are dying.”

He was also very critical of the state of the Russian Army, which he considered “shit”.

That same day, the bank’s press service indicated that the businessman does not work in the company and has not been to Russia nor did he make decisions in the entity.

Tinkov He left Russia in 2019 to treat his illness but kept 35% in the bank, which, according to the New York Times, was valued at more than $20 billion on the London Stock Exchange last year.

The day after his message, according to the oligarch, the bank received a call from the Administration of the President of Russia in which they demanded, under the threat of nationalization, cut all ties with the businessman and even change the name of the entity.

Already on April 22, the bank published a message on its Telegram account with the headline: “Tinkoff decided to change the brand”.

So Tinkov had no choice but to sell his shares.

“I am grateful to Potanin, who quickly bought me, albeit for “pennies”.

According to the businessman, he sold the share package at 3% of the value that he believes his percentage in Tinkoff was worth.

Source: Elcomercio