How a single phone call after Ukraine war post wiped out former Russian oligarch Tinkov's $9 billion fortune

Oleg Tinkov built one of Russia’s most successful digital lenders, a sleek, app-first bank that helped redefine retail banking in the country.

But now he said that speaking out against Russia-Ukraine war cost him nearly $9 billion or over Rs 80,000 crore in personal wealth and forced him to give up control of the bank he founded.

Tinkov, the founder of Tinkoff Bank, said a single Instagram post in 2022, in which he called the war as “insane”, triggered pressure from the Kremlin that ultimately led to the forced sale of his stake in the lender at a fraction of its true value.

In the post, Tinkov sharply criticised Russia’s military leadership, calling the invasion poorly planned and deeply corrupt. He also claimed that most Russians opposed the war, while those who supported it were “morons”, according to media reports.

“I do not see ONE beneficiary of this insane war!” Tinkov wrote in Russian in his Instagram post, according to CNBC. “Innocent people and soldiers are dying. The generals woke up from a hangover, realized they had a sh---y army.”

“And how will the army be good if everything else in the country is s--t and dirty in nepotism,” he wrote.

Tinkov said that just days after publishing the post, he received a call from the Kremlin. He was told that his stake in the bank would either be sold and his name removed from the brand or the bank would be nationalised.

“I couldn’t negotiate the price. I was like a hostage,” Tinkov told The New York Times.

Tinkov said he was left with no meaningful choice. He sold his 35% stake in TCS, the group that owned 100% of Tinkoff Bank, in April 2022 to Interros, a company founded by Russian mining magnate Vladimir Potanin.

In a later interview with BBC, Tinkov said the deal valued his holding at roughly 3% of what it was actually worth. According to him, the transaction wiped out close to $9 billion from his fortune. The sale effectively ended Tinkov’s involvement with the bank he had built.

To be sure, the London stock exchange valued his 35% stake at more than $20 billion in 2021. Following the sale, Tinkov left Russia and later renounced his Russian citizenship.