Billionaire Oleg Tinkov, the founder of the online bank Tinkoff who renounced his Russian nationality and criticized the offensive in Ukraine, was branded Friday with the infamous acronym “
foreign agent”
by the Russian authorities.
Hundreds of people, human rights activists, opponents or independent journalists, have been classified in recent years
as “foreign agents”
, which is accompanied by strict administrative constraints and the obligation to appear as such in any public communication.
According to the Russian Ministry of Justice, Oleg Tinkov, who lives abroad,
“spread false information”
about Kremlin policy and the conflict in Ukraine.
Oleg Tinkov renounced his Russian nationality in 2022, saying he did not want
“to be associated with a fascist country which started a war with its peaceful neighbor and which kills innocent people daily”
.
“Weaken Putin’s regime”
He said he hoped other businessmen would follow his example to
“weaken (Vladimir) Putin’s regime and its economy and ultimately bring it to failure”
.
He also virulently criticized the
“absurd”
Russian offensive in Ukraine, calling on Westerners to help put an end to this
“massacre”
.
It was one of the strongest positions taken by a Russian businessman at the time.
Colorful billionaire Oleg Tinkov is the founder of Tinkoff Bank, which has grown rapidly and in 2020 claimed to be Russia's third-largest retail bank behind state-owned giants Sberbank and VTB.
He left the post of CEO of Tinkoff Bank in 2020, the latter having distanced itself from his statements against the Russian assault in Ukraine.