MOSCOW – “I cannot and do not want to be associated with a fascist country that has started a conflict against its peaceful neighbor and kills innocent people every day”. The billionaire Oleg Tinkovfounder of the Tinkoff online bankdid not mince words to announce that he had renounced Russian citizenship in protest against what the Kremlin requires to call a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“I hate the Putin’s Russiabut I love all the Russians who are clearly opposed to this crazy “operation, Tinkov wrote again, posting on Instagram a photograph of a certificate from the Russian consulate confirming the revocation of his Russian citizenship.
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Who is Tinkov, the founder of Tinkoff Bank
An eccentric billionaire, Tinkov founded Tinkoff Bank which has grown rapidly to become the third largest bank in Russia in 2020 after the state giants Sberbank and Vtb and today has around 20 million customers.
Arrested in London in 2020 at the request of the United States accusing him of tax evasion, he was released on bail to undergo treatment for leukemia. And he had finally resigned from the position of CEO of the bank.
Last April he had already fiercely criticized the “absurd” Russian offensive in Ukraine asking Westerners to put an end to this “massacre” and was therefore forced to give up control of the bank that had distanced itself from it.
“I hope other prominent Russian businessmen will follow my example in order to weaken Vladimir Putin’s regime and its economy and ultimately defeat it,” Tinkov wrote.
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The other Russian billionaires who gave up their Russian passport
There are already several billionaires who have renounced Russian citizenship. The last one: Nikolaj Storonskij, one of the founders of the British banking service Revolut, the son of a top manager of Gazprom subject to sanctions. Previously also the founder of the group Dst Global Jurij Milnerthe former owner of the investment firm Trojka Dialog Ruben Vardanjan and the founder of the investment firm Freedom Finance Timur Turlov they had given up their Russian passport.
However, not everyone did it for noble reasons. Last April Forbes he had made it known that various entrepreneurs had asked not to be called “Russian billionaires” anymore, in order not to run into sanctions. Among them were also Milner and Storonsky, as well as Pavel Durov the Telegram e Igor and Dmitrij Bukhman by Playrix.