Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship calling Russia a 'fascist country' over its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
The founder of Tinkoff bank, Oleg Tinkov, 54, took to Instagram on Monday to announce, “I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship."
“I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbor and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said.
“I hope more prominent Russian businessmen will follow me, so it weakens Putin’s regime and his economy, and put him eventually to defeat,” he wrote on Instagram.
CNN reports that Tinkov recently sold his 35% stake in Tinkoff Bank’s parent company TSC to a firm controlled by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Before the sale, Tinkov’s wealth was estimated at about $3.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In March this year, the Associated Press reported that among the Russian business tycoons to urge an end to the war in Ukraine include the metals magnate Oleg Deripaska, Alfa Bank founder Mikhail Fridman and banker Oleg Tinkov
Tinkov wrote on Instagram: “Innocent people are dying in Ukraine now, every day, this is unthinkable and unacceptable.”
According to the CNN report, Nikolay Storonsky, the co-founder and CEO of Revolut, renounced his Russian citizenship earlier this year, the British company said Tuesday, confirming a report in The Telegraph.
“His position on the war is on the public record: the war is totally abhorrent and he remains resolute in calling for an immediate end to the fighting,” CNN quoted Revolut as saying in a statement.