On July 20, the British government announced the decision to lift the sanctions imposed on Oleg Tinkov, a high-profile Russian entrepreneur and the founder of Tinkoff Bank. The banker had been under personal sanctions since March 2022.
An update published on the government website reads:
“The following entry has been removed from the Consolidated List and is no longer subject to an asset freeze or trust services sanctions: Oleg Yurievich Tinkov.”
Oleg Tinkov was first put on the list of sanctioned bankers after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. As a result, his assets in the UK remained frozen since last spring, and he was also banned from entering the country. A year later, Tinkov appealed directly to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), asking for the restrictions to be lifted. It became possible after the banker renounced Russian citizenship and publicly condemned the Russian government’s policy.
In his address to the British authorities, Tinkov indicated that removing him from the sanctions list would be fair and could also prove that Western sanctions did not target all Russians indiscriminately but focused on those supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin and his decision to invade Ukraine.
Over the last few years, Oleg Tinkov has been known to reside and undergo treatment in the UK and other European countries. In 2019, the Russian entrepreneur was diagnosed with leukemia; in 2020, he received a bone marrow transplant, getting into remission. According to Tinkov, the sanctions against him were detrimental to his treatment at some point.
Former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has also been living in the UK lately, supported Oleg Tinkov. He penned a letter to the FCDO, requesting that the sanctions against Tinkov be lifted. The former head of Tinkoff Bank also received support from Richard Branson, a British millionaire and the founder of the Virgin Group.
Oleg Tinkov sold his stake in the TCS Group, the owner of Tinkoff Bank, to Interros, a group of companies owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, back in 2022. Tinkov complained that he’d been forced to sell the bank’s shares at an extremely low price because of the pressure from Russian authorities. He linked it to his political stance regarding Russia’s military activities in Ukraine.
