Russian oligarchs who dare cross Vladimir Putin are now finding
out what the reaction from Putin is and it is to retaliate swiftly.
At least that was the case with one Russian bank founder by the name of
Oleg Tinkoff who doesn't even live in Russia right now.
He actually traveled outside of the country in 2019 to receive leukemia
treatments.
However, he was the most aggressive in criticizing his Putin's Invasion
into Ukraine and the retaliation was in fact Swift, which gives us
a better idea of how these sanctions are really playing out last month.
Tinkoff, the former or I should say the founder of one of Russia's biggest
banks criticized the war in Ukraine in a post on Instagram.
The next day, he said Putin's administration contacted his
executives and threatened to nationalize his bank if it did not cut ties with him.
Last week he sold his 35% stake to a Russian mining billionaire.
In what he describes as a desperate sale,
a fire sale that was forced on him by the Kremlin.
He says quote, I couldn't discuss the price,
it was like a hostage you take what you were offered, I couldn't negotiate.
So he sold his stake and the bank even turned its back on him immediately.
For instance, Putin said, not only must you cut ties with Tinkoff,
which by the way the bank is named after him.
You also have to change the name of the bank because it's named after this
Oligarch who dares to cross me and
criticize our invasion are special military operation into Ukraine.
He said that he had hired body cards.
Tinkoff did after friends with contacts in the Russian security services,
told him he should fear for his life and
quipped that while he had survived leukemia, perhaps the Kremlin.