The staggering price of dissent in modern Russia has been laid bare by a former banking magnate, who claims a single social media update obliterated his fortune and forced him into exile. Oleg Tinkov, once celebrated as a pioneering financial success story, says an Instagram post criticising the war in Ukraine cost him nearly $9 billion and his Russian citizenship.
The Fateful Post and Swift Kremlin Retaliation
In April 2022, shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Tinkov took to Instagram to voice a scathing condemnation. He labelled the war as "insane" and accused the Russian military of corruption and poor preparation. In a bold claim, he stated that 90 per cent of Russians opposed the invasion, dismissing the remaining supporters with a harsh epithet.
At the time, Tinkov was the founder and a major shareholder of TCS Group, the parent company of the highly successful Tinkoff Bank. His status as an elite businessman, however, offered no protection. He revealed in an interview with the BBC that the repercussions were immediate and severe. Within a single day, senior bank executives received a direct call from officials linked to the Kremlin. The ultimatum was brutal: Tinkov must sell his stake and have his name removed from the bank's branding, or the institution would be nationalised.
A Forced Sale and a Fortune Wiped Out
Tinkov described the ensuing process not as a business negotiation but as a state-backed coercion. "I couldn't negotiate the price. I was like a hostage," he told the BBC. He was given no freedom to bargain over the value of his approximately 35 per cent holding in TCS Group.
The resolution came within a week. A buyer emerged in the form of a company connected to Vladimir Potanin, a metals billionaire and one of Russia's wealthiest individuals, whose nickel supplies are crucial for military production. The deal, as per Tinkov's account, valued his multi-billion dollar stake at a mere 3 per cent of its true market worth. This fire-sale effectively erased close to $9 billion of wealth that had been built over decades, transferring control of his financial empire to an oligarch aligned with the state.
Exile and a New Chapter
The consequences extended far beyond financial ruin. Following the forced sale, Oleg Tinkov left Russia and subsequently relinquished his Russian citizenship. He also alleged systematic efforts to erase his legacy from the bank he built, stripping his name from its brand and history.
Tinkov draws a direct parallel between his experience and that of other fallen oligarchs like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent years in prison after challenging state power. His case serves as a stark illustration of the Kremlin's mechanism for enforcing loyalty among the economic elite, where public disagreement with official policy can lead to total financial and personal destruction.
Now living in exile, Tinkov has begun to re-enter public life in 2025. He has positioned himself as a backer of Plata, a Mexican fintech startup founded by former executives from his old bank, marking a tentative new beginning far from the reach of the Russian state.
