Our Russian sanctions are only helping Vladimir Putin

‘I don’t see a single beneficiary of this crazy war’, wrote the self-made Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov on his Instagram page on 19 April 2022, less than two months after Russia invaded Ukraine. ‘Innocent people and soldiers are dying every day. This is unacceptable’. His 634,000 followers were stunned to read his anti-war declaration: ‘The generals are waking up with a hangover and realise they have a shit army. Of course, there are morons who draw “Z” but 10 per cent of any country are morons. 90 per cent of Russians are against this war… Stop this massacre.’ 

The next day Putin’s officials contacted the outspoken tycoon’s executives and threatened to nationalise his bank unless he sold his shares for 3 per cent of their real value. Six months later the abrasive Tinkov renounced his Russian citizenship: ‘I cannot and will not be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and is killing innocent people daily.’ 

And yet the British government imposed sanctions on Tinkov and accused him of ‘receiving benefits from the Russian government’ because he owned enterprises of ‘strategic importance’ to the state.