Billionaire Richard Branson asked the UK government to lift sanctions against businessman Oleg Tinkov

British entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, asked to lift sanctions against the founder of Tinkoff Bank, Oleg Tinkov. this reports The Times .

Branson addressed the British government with a letter in which he said that he considered sanctions against Tinkov “unfounded.” “Although he was a businessman, he was never an oligarch. I have always known him as a dynamic entrepreneur in his own right,” The Times quotes a fragment of Branson’s letter.

According to the publication, Branson and Tinkov have been friends for a long time; the Russian entrepreneur also turned to Brason for advice on running a business.

In March 2022, the UK imposed sanctions against 59 Russian citizens and companies, the list also included businessman Oleg Tinkov. Initially, the sanctions included transport restrictions, including the arrest of private planes and yachts, but a day later such restrictions against Tinkov and the head of the Millhouse company, Evgeniy Shvidler, were lifted .

In April of the same year, Tinkov called the invasion of Ukraine a “crazy war” that had “not a single beneficiary,” and later sold his stake in Tinkoff to Vladimir Potanin’s company Interros.

A few weeks later, Tinkov reported that after his words about the war, employees of the presidential administration contacted the management of Tinkoff and threatened to nationalize the bank if the employees did not sever ties with its founder. Later, the bank announced plans to rebrand and abandon Tinkov’s surname in the name.

In 2017, Tinkov proposed restoring the monarchy in Russia as “the most correct form of government for vast Russia,” and, in his opinion, Vladimir Putin should lead the country. In the same year, at the request of Tinkov, a case was opened against the author of the YouTube blog “Nemagiya” Alexey Pskovitin, who shot a critical video about the banker. the blogger’s home in Kemerovo Investigators who arrived from Moscow burst into .

to Ukraine several times Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Richard Branson has flown . In particular, he met with President Vladimir Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. In addition, the businessman called on Western countries to strengthen their support for Ukraine: supply more weapons and more often organize fundraisers in support of Ukrainians.