After Criticizing Putin’s War, Russian Tycoon Tinkov Sells Bank He Built

(Bloomberg) — Sanctioned billionaire Oleg Tinkov sold his family’s stake in the digital bank he founded to Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin, just over a week after he slammed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Potanin’s Interros Capital is buying Tinkov’s 35% stake in TCS Group Holding Plc, better known as Tinkoff Bank, Interros said in a statement Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Tinkov, worth $3.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was sanctioned by the U.K. in March and accused of being complicit in Russia’s war of Ukraine. Last week, he published an expletive-filled post about Russia’s “insane war” on his Instagram page in a rare example of a prominent Russian businessman publicly criticizing the invasion.

After the comments, Tinkoff’s co-chief executive officers quit and the bank distanced itself from its founder, calling him just one of its 20 million clients and announcing plans to drop his name from the brand.

Tinkov said he was retiring to focus on his health and family, according to the statement. In 2020, he announced he was receiving treatment for leukemia. That same year, he pulled out of a deal to sell the bank to Russian internet giant Yandex NV in a deal that would have valued TCS at $5.5 billion.

The stake is Potanin’s second bank acquisition in April, after Interros bought Rosbank PJSC from Societe Generale SA, which sought to pull out of Russia after the Ukraine invasion. Unlike many of Russia’s richest people, Potanin has not been targeted by U.S., U.K. or European Union sanctions, though he was recently hit by Canada.