Comment Russian banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov renounced his Russian citizenship in a public rebuke of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, saying he “cannot and will not be associated with a fascist country”. He added on Tuesday that he plans to withdraw his name from Tinkoff Bank, the Russian commercial bank he founded in 2006, writing: “I hate when my brand/name is associated with the bank that works with murderers and blood.” The businessman announced that he had ended his citizenship in an Instagram post on Monday, sharing an image of the official document certifying his resignation, which was dated October 26. his economy,” he said, adding: “I hate Putin’s Russia, but I love all Russians, who are clearly against this crazy war!” That post was later deleted, with Tinkov saying on Tuesday that it had “mysteriously disappeared” and speculating that it could have been the work of a “Kremlin troll”. Tinkov, who also reportedly holds Cypriot citizenship, is one of the few prominent Russian businessmen to have publicly criticized the invasion. He came out against the war in February and later denounced the invasion as “crazy”. He claims he was forced to sell his stake in Tinkoff Bank under pressure from Kremlin officials. Despite his opposition to the war, British authorities announced sanctions against Tinkov in March, freezing his UK assets, banning his private boats and aircraft from UK soil and preventing citizens and companies from doing business with him. Foreign Office officials accused the 54-year-old of profiting from his involvement in Tinkoff Bank or supporting the Russian government through it. A State Department statement cited reports that estimated his net worth at the time at $3.9 billion. Last year, Tinkov also pleaded guilty to tax fraud in a criminal case in the United States. Tinkov is the latest of a small number of Russian-born business executives to officially cut ties with their homeland. Earlier this week, the Telegraph newspaper reported that prominent Russian executive Nikolai Storonsky, who co-founded the Revolut bank, had renounced his citizenship. In March, Russian-Israeli oligarch Leonid Nevzlin announced he was renouncing his citizenship, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Everything Putin touches dies,” Nevzlin wrote in a Facebook post. “I am against war. I am against the occupation. I am against the genocide of the Ukrainian people.” Oligarch renounces Russian citizenship, saying ‘everything Putin touches dies’ And in October, billionaire Yuri Milner announced on Twitter that his family had “completed the process of renouncing Russian citizenship”, having left the country “for good” following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was Russia’s richest man before his arrest in 2003, has become one of Putin’s most prominent critics. In an interview with the Washington Post this year in London, he called on other prominent Russians who have fled the country to denounce the invasion. “If you have left, then you will have to publicly distance yourself or we will be forced to suspect that you are acting [the Kremlin’s] on behalf of,” he said.
