Russian banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov says he was forced to hide and sell his stake in the bank he founded after criticizing the war in Ukraine and provoking a backlash from Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Tinkov says he sold his 35 percent stake in TCS Group, which owns Tinkoff Bank, to Russian oligarch and mining titan Vladimir Potanin last week after Kremlin officials threatened to nationalize the bank unless he severed ties with the businessman.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Tinkov, 54, one of the few entrepreneurs in Russia, said he was undiscovered and feared for his safety.
The businessman said he was hiring bodyguards, adding that he had survived leukemia, but “maybe the Kremlin will kill me now.”
On Thursday, the bank announced that Tinkov had sold his stake in TCS Group to Interros Capital, a company run by Potanin, one of Russia’s richest men. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Potanin, who was not sanctioned by the EU, the United States or the United Kingdom, also agreed to buy Rosbank from Société Générale in April. Potanin is sanctioned by Canada.
Speaking to the Financial Times on Monday, Tinkov said he was forced to make a “fire sale”. He believes he sold his stake in the bank for about 3 percent of its true value.
Tinkoff’s global depository receipts listed in London – certificates that allow investors to bet on Russian stocks on world markets – fell from $ 112 in October to $ 3.19 when they were suspended in March.
Tinkov, who has amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune for decades to become one of the country’s top entrepreneurs, has so far tried to distance himself from the Kremlin, but has stopped speaking out against Putin.
This approach changed last month when he authored a series of Instagram posts criticizing the war in Ukraine. In a post, Tinkov said: “I do not see ANY beneficiary of this crazy war! Innocent people and soldiers are dying. ” He added: “How good it will be for the army, if everything else in the country is shit and stuck [nepotism] and servility? ”
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Only a handful of Russian business leaders have spoken out against the war, and very few have used a language as strong as Tinkov’s. Many chose to say they were against the war in general. However, Tinkov focused his criticism on Putin and the Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Putin has made it clear to the country’s oligarchs – including a major meeting in the Kremlin days after the war – that they risk losing their business if they do not support the war.
Several people said after the meeting that they felt powerless to influence Putin’s decision. In the decades since coming to power for the first time, Putin has imposed his will on the oligarchs, responding to any criticism with repression, leaving them with significantly reduced influence.
Tinkoff, the bank that Tinkov started in 2006, denied this description of events and said there were “no threats against the bank’s management”.
The Kremlin did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A spokesman for Potanin’s investment company Interros declined to comment.
In March, Tinkov was on the UK sanctions list and his assets were frozen, as well as a ban on doing business with UK citizens and companies. He is also barred from traveling to or from the United Kingdom.
The news of Tinkov’s allegations was first reported by the New York Times.
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