Oleg Y Tinkov was value greater than $9 billion in November, famend as certainly one of Russia’s few self-made enterprise tycoons after constructing his fortune exterior the vitality and minerals industries that have been the playgrounds of Russian kleptocracy.
Then, final month, Tinkov, the founding father of certainly one of Russia’s greatest banks, criticised the conflict in Ukraine in a submit on Instagram. The subsequent day, he mentioned, President Vladimir Putin’s administration contacted his executives and threatened to nationalise his financial institution if it didn’t reduce ties with him. Last week, he bought his 35% stake to a Russian mining billionaire in what he describes as a “desperate sale, a fire sale” that was pressured on him by the Kremlin.
“I couldn’t discuss the price,” Tinkov mentioned. “It was like a hostage — you take what you are offered. I couldn’t negotiate.”
Tinkov, 54, spoke to The New York Times by cellphone Sunday, from a location he wouldn’t disclose, in his first interview since Putin invaded Ukraine. He mentioned he had employed bodyguards after mates with contacts within the Russian safety providers instructed him he ought to concern for his life, and quipped that whereas he had survived leukemia, maybe “the Kremlin will kill me.”
It was a swift and jarring flip of fortune for a longtime billionaire who for years had prevented working afoul of Putin whereas portraying himself as unbiased of the Kremlin. His downfall underscores the results going through these within the Russian elite who dare to cross their president, and helps clarify why there was little however silence from enterprise leaders who, in response to Tinkov, are fearful in regards to the influence of the conflict on their life and their wallets.
Indeed, Tinkov claimed that lots of his acquaintances within the enterprise and authorities elite instructed him privately that they agreed with him, “but they are all afraid.”
In the interview, Tinkov spoke out extra forcefully towards the conflict than has every other main Russian enterprise chief.
“I’ve realized that Russia, as a country, no longer exists,” Tinkov mentioned, predicting that Putin would keep in energy a very long time. “I believed that the Putin regime was bad. But of course, I had no idea that it would take on such catastrophic scale.”
The Kremlin didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Tinkoff, the financial institution Tinkov began in 2006, denied his characterization of occasions and mentioned there had been “no threats of any kind against the bank’s leadership.” The financial institution, which introduced final Thursday that Tinkov had bought his complete stake within the firm to a agency run by Vladimir Potanin, a mining magnate near Putin, seemed to be distancing itself from its founder.
“Oleg has not been in Moscow for many years, did not participate in the life of the company and was not involved in any matters,” Tinkoff mentioned in an announcement.
Tinkov has additionally run into hassle within the West. He agreed to pay $507 million final 12 months to settle a tax fraud case within the United States. In March, Britain included him on an inventory of sanctions towards the Russian enterprise elite.
“These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss mentioned on the time.
Tinkov is however broadly seen as a uncommon Russian enterprise pioneer, modelling his maverick capitalism on Richard Branson and morphing from irreverent beer brewer to founding father of one of many world’s most subtle on-line banks. He says he has by no means set foot within the Kremlin, and he has often criticized Putin.
But in contrast to Russian tycoons who years in the past broke with Putin and now dwell in exile, similar to former oil magnate Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky or tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov, Tinkov discovered a approach to coexist with the Kremlin and make billions — at the least till April 19.
That is when Tinkov revealed an emotional anti-war submit on Instagram, calling the invasion “crazy” and deriding Russia’s army: “Why would we have a good army,’’ he asked, if everything else in the country is dysfunctional “and mired in nepotism, servility and subservience?”
Pro-war Russians posted images of their shredded Tinkoff debit playing cards on social media. Vladimir Solovyov, a distinguished state tv host, delivered a tirade towards him, declaring, “Your conscience is rotten.”
Tinkov was already exterior Russia at that time, having departed in 2019 to obtain therapy for leukemia. He later stepped down and ceded management of Tinkoff, however stored a 35% stake within the firm, which was valued at greater than $20 billion on the London inventory trade final 12 months.
Tinkov mentioned he was grateful to Potanin, the mining magnate, for permitting him to salvage at the least some cash from his firm; he mentioned that he couldn’t disclose a worth, however that he had bought at 3% of what he believed to be his stake’s true worth.
“They made me sell it because of my pronouncements,” Tinkov mentioned. “I sold it for kopecks.”
He had been contemplating promoting his stake anyway, Tinkov mentioned, as a result of “as long as Putin is alive, I doubt anything will change.”
“I don’t believe in Russia’s future,” he mentioned. “Most importantly, I am not prepared to associate my brand and my name with a country that attacks its neighbours without any reason at all.”
