Oleg Yu. Tinkov was worth more than $ 9 billion in November.
Then, last month, Mr. Tinkov, the founder of one of Russia’s largest banks, criticized the war in Ukraine in an Instagram post. The next day, he said, President Vladimir Putin’s administration contacted his leaders and threatened to nationalize his bank if it did not sever ties with him. Last week, he sold his 35 percent stake in a Russian billionaire in what he described as a “desperate sale, a fiery sale” imposed on him by the Kremlin.
“I could not discuss the price,” said Mr Tinkov. “It was like a hostage – you take what is offered to you. I couldn’t negotiate. “
Tinkov, 54, spoke to The New York Times on the phone Sunday from a place he would not reveal in his first interview since Putin invaded Ukraine. He said he hired bodyguards after friends with Russian security officials told him he had to fear for his life, and joked that as long as he survived leukemia, the Kremlin might “kill me.”
It was a quick and shocking turn of events for a longtime billionaire who for years avoided clashing with Mr Putin while posing as independent of the Kremlin. His fall underscores the consequences for those in Russia’s elite who dare to overthrow their president, and helps explain why there was little but silence on the part of business leaders who, according to Mr Tinkov, are worried about the impact of the war on their way of life and their wallets.
Use of a Tinkoff Bank mobile card for purchase in Omsk in March. Credit … Alexey Malgavko / Reuters
Indeed, Mr Tinkov claims that many of his acquaintances in business and the state elite have told him in private that they agree with him, “but everyone is afraid”.
In the interview, Mr Tinkov spoke more strongly against the war than any other major Russian business leader.
“I understand that Russia as a state no longer exists,” Mr Tinkov said, predicting that Putin would remain in power for a long time. “I believed that Putin’s regime was bad. But, of course, I had no idea that it would reach such a catastrophic scale.
The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.
Tinkoff, the bank set up by Mr Tinkov in 2006, denied his characterization of the events and said there were “no threats against the bank’s management”. The bank, which announced last Thursday that Mr Tinkov had sold his entire stake in the company to a company run by Vladimir Potanin, a mining tycoon close to Putin, appears to be distancing itself from its founder.
“Oleg has not been in Moscow for many years, has not been involved in the life of the company and has not been involved in any issues,” Tinkov said in a statement.
Mr Tinkov also has problems in the West. He agreed to pay $ 507 million last year to settle a tax fraud case in the United States. In March, Britain added it to the list of sanctions against Russia’s business elite.
“These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the killing of innocent civilians, and it is right that they should pay the price,” Foreign Minister Liz Truss said at the time.
However, Mr. Tinkov is widely regarded as a rare Russian business pioneer, modeling his independent capitalism on Richard Branson and turning from a dishonest brewer to the founder of one of the world’s most sophisticated online banks. He says he has never set foot in the Kremlin and has occasionally criticized Putin.
But unlike Russian tycoons who broke up with Mr Putin years ago and now live in exile, such as former oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky or technology entrepreneur Pavel Durov, Mr Tinkov has found a way to coexist with the Kremlin and make billions. – at least until April 19.
Mr. Tinkov then posted an emotional anti-war post on Instagram, calling the invasion “crazy” and mocking the Russian military: “Why have a good army?” ? ”
The pro-war Russians posted photos of their torn Tinkoff debit cards on social media. Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent state television presenter, issued a tirade against him, saying: “Your conscience is rotten.”
Mr Tinkov in Moscow in 2004, when he was known as Russia’s “beer oligarch”. Credit … Sergei Kivrin for The New York Times
At that time, Mr. Tinkov was already out of Russia after leaving in 2019 to be treated for leukemia. He later stepped down and relinquished control of Tinkoff, but retained a 35% stake in the company, which was valued at more than $ 20 billion on the London Stock Exchange last year.
A day after the April 19 publication, Mr Tinkov said on Sunday, the Kremlin had contacted the bank’s top executives and told them that any connection to their founder was already a big problem.
“They said: ‘Your shareholder’s statement is not welcome and we will nationalize your bank if he does not sell it and the owner does not change, and if you do not change the name,'” Mr Tinkov said, citing sources in Tinkoff. identifies.
On April 22, Tinkoff announced that he would change his name this year, a move he says has been planned for a long time. Behind the scenes, Mr Tinkov said, he was struggling to sell his stake, one that had already been devalued by Western sanctions against Russia’s financial system.
Mr Tinkov said he was grateful to Mr Potanin, the mining tycoon, for allowing him to save at least some money from his company; he said he could not disclose the price, but that he had sold 3 per cent of what he thought was the true value of his stake.
“They made me sell it because of my statements,” Mr Tinkov said. “I sold it for pennies.”
He was considering selling his case anyway, Mr Tinkov said, because “as long as Putin is alive, I doubt anything will change.”
“I do not believe in the future of Russia,” he said. “The most important thing is that I am not ready to associate my brand and name with a country that attacks its neighbors for no reason.
Mr Tinkov is concerned that a foundation he has set up to improve the treatment of blood cancer in Russia could also fall victim to his financial problems.
He denied speaking openly, hoping to lift UK sanctions against him, although he said he hoped the British government would eventually “correct that mistake”.
He said his illness – he now suffers from host-to-host disease, a complication of stem cell transplants, he said – may have made him bolder to speak than other Russian business leaders and senior officials. Elite members, he said, were “shocked” by the war and called in large numbers to offer support.
“They understand that they are tied to the West, that they are part of the world market, etc.,” Mr Tinkov said. “It simply came to our notice then. But they don’t like it. They want their children to spend their summer vacation in Sardinia.
Mr Tinkov said no one in the Kremlin had ever contacted him directly, but in addition to putting pressure on his company, he had heard from friends with security officials that he could be in physical danger.
“I was told, ‘The decision has been made for you,'” he said. “I don’t know if that means they will kill me on top of everything. I do not rule it out. “
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