A Russian billionaire is standing up against the war in Ukraine.
The phenomenon is not frequent, at least in public, and this gives all the more relief to the words of Oleg Tinkov.
On his Instagram account, the founder of online banking Tinkoff on Tuesday castigated an "absurd" war in Ukraine and called on the West to help end this "massacre".
"90% of Russians are AGAINST this war," assured the 54-year-old businessman, stressing that he sees "NO beneficiary of this absurd war" where "innocent people and soldiers are dying".
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Founded in 2006, Tinkoff Bank has grown rapidly and in 2020 claimed to be Russia's third-largest retail bank behind state-owned giants Sberbank and VTB.
The Tinkoff bank claims to have some 20 million customers today.
Oleg Tinkov had also led the Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team, in which Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan notably ran.
"Waking up with a hangover, the generals realized they had a shitty army," he also claimed, adding, "And how good can the army be if everything else in the country is shit steeped in nepotism and servility?
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Subject to UK sanctions
A whimsical billionaire, the 50-year-old announced in early 2020 that he had leukemia, shortly after being arrested in London, the United States accusing him of tax evasion and requesting his extradition.
He was later released on bail and underwent treatment in London.
While he left the post of CEO of the Tinkoff bank in 2020, Oleg Tinkov is currently targeted by British sanctions decided in connection with the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
“Dear 'Collective West', please leave Mr. Putin a clear way out so he can save face and end this massacre.
Please be more rational and humanitarian,” Tinkov added in English in his text on Instagram.
This is one of the strongest criticisms issued by a Russian businessman about the offensive launched in Ukraine on February 24.
For its part, the Tinkoff bank issued a press release stressing that it did not want to comment on this "personal opinion" and recalling that the billionaire no longer made decisions concerning the operations of the Tinkoff brand companies.
“He is not an employee of Tinkoff, he has not been in Russia for a long time and he has been dealing with matters of his health for the past few years,” the statement said.
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