Oleg Y. Tinkov worthy more than $9 billion in November, gaining a reputation as one of Russia’s few self-made business tycoons after building its fortune outside the energy and minerals industries that are the playground for the Russians. kleptocracy.
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, the administration of President Vladimir V. Putin contacted his executives and threatened to nationalize his bank if it did not sever ties with him. Last week, he sold his 35 percent stake to a Russian mining billionaire in what he describes as “a desperate sale, a fiery sale” that was forced by the Kremlin.
“I cannot discuss the price,” Mr. Tinkov said. “It’s like a hostage – you take what you’re offered. I cannot negotiate. “
Mr. Tinkov, 54, spoke to The New York Times by phone on Sunday, from a location he did not disclose, in his first interview since Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine. He said he hired bodyguards after friends with contacts in the Russian security services told him he should fear for his life, and quipped that while he survived after leukemia, maybe “the Kremlin will kill me.”
It was a swift and jarring fortune turn for a longtime billionaire, who for years has avoided bothering Mr. Putin while projecting himself as independent from the Kremlin. His downfall underscores the consequences that Russian elites dare to face their president, and helps explain why there has been so little but silence from business leaders, who, According to Mr. Tinkov, worry about the impact of war on their way of life. and their wallets.
Indeed, Mr. Tinkov claims that many of his acquaintances in the business world and in the government elite have privately told him that they agree with him, “but they are all afraid.”
In the interview, Mr. Tinkov spoke out against war more strongly than any other major Russian business leader.
“I realized that Russia, as a country, no longer exists,” Tinkov said, predicting that Putin would stay in power for a long time. “I was convinced that the Putin regime was bad. But of course, I didn’t know it would happen on such a catastrophic scale.”
The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.
Tinkoff, the bank Mr. Tinkov founded in 2006, denied his description of events and said there had been “no threat of any kind 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 magnate close to Putin, appears to be moving away. leave the founder.
“Oleg has not been in Moscow for many years, is not involved in the company’s operations and is not involved in any of its affairs,” Tinkoff said in a statement.
Mr. Tinkov also has trouble in the West. He agreed paid $507 million last year to settle a tax fraud case in the United States. In March, Britain placed him on a sanctions list against the Russian business elite.
“These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs were complicit in the killing of innocent civilians and it’s right that they pay the price,” said Secretary of State Liz Truss. speak at that time.
Still, Mr Tinkov is considered by many to be a rare Russian business pioneer, modeling his maverick capitalism on Richard Branson and morphing into the word careless brewer for the founder of one of the worlds most sophisticated online banking. He said he had never set foot in the Kremlin and occasionally criticized Mr. Putin.
But unlike Russian tycoons who broke up with Putin years ago and are now living in exile, such as former oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky or tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov, Mr. Tinkov has found a way to co-exist with the Kremlin and make billions of dollars – at least until April 19.
That’s when Mr. Tinkov published an emotional anti-war article upload on Instagram, calling the invasion “crazy” and suggesting the Russian military: “Why do we have a good army,” he asked, if everything else in the country was dysfunctional “and bogged down.” into despotism, slavery, and treason?”
Pro-war Russians have posted photos of their shredded Tinkoff debit cards on social media. Vladimir Solovyov, a famous state TV presenter, delivered an attitude against him, claiming, “Your conscience has rotted.”
Mr. Tinkov was outside Russia at the time, departing in 2019 for treatment for leukemia. He later stepped down and ceded control of Tinkoff, but retains 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 post, Mr. Tinkov said on Sunday the Kremlin had reached out to senior executives of the bank and told them that any connection to the founder of the they are now a big problem.
“They said: ‘Your shareholder statement is not welcome, and we will nationalize your bank if he doesn’t sell it and the owner doesn’t change, and if you don’t change the name, ” Mr. Tinkov said, quoting source at Tinkoff, which he declined to identify.
On April 22, Tinkoff announced they would be changing their name this year, a move they claim was long planned. Mr. Tinkov said behind the scenes he was scrambling to sell his stake – one that has been devalued by Western sanctions on Russia’s financial system.
Mr. Tinkov said that he thanked Mr. Potanin, the mining magnate, for allowing him to withdraw at least some of the money from his company; he said he could not disclose the price, but he sold at 3% of the true value of his shares.
“They made me sell it because of my claims,” Mr. Tinkov said. “I sold it for kopecks.”
He considered selling his shares anyway, said Tinkov, because “as long as Putin is alive, I doubt that things will change.”
“I don’t believe in Russia’s future,” he said. “Most importantly, I am not prepared to brand and name myself with a country that attacks neighboring countries for no reason.”
Mr. Tinkov is concerned that the fund he set up to improve blood cancer treatment in Russia could also fall victim to his financial troubles.
He denied that he was speaking out in the hope of a lifting of UK sanctions on him, although he said he hoped the UK government would eventually “correct the wrong”. this mistake”.
His illness – he now suffers from transplant-host disease, a complication of stem cell transplants, he said – may have made him more courageous in speaking out than leaders Russian businesses and other high-ranking officials. He claimed that members of the elite were “shocked” by the war and had been calling him in large numbers to offer assistance.
“They understand that they are tied to the West, that they are part of the global market, etc.,” Mr. Tinkov said. “They were quickly, quickly turned into Iran. But they don’t like it. They want their kids to spend the summer in Sardinia. “
Mr. Tinkov said that no one from the Kremlin had ever contacted him directly, but that in addition to pressure with his company, he had heard from friends with ties to the security service that he could be in danger about his safety. physical.
“They told me, ‘The decision regarding you has been made,’” he said. “Whether that means on top of everything they will kill me, I don’t know. I don’t rule that out.”
