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Richard Branson calls for London to drop sanctions for Russian tycoon

The founder of Virgin, British billionaire Richard Branson has called for the UK to lift sanctions on Oleg Tinkov, a Russian entrepreneur who spoke out against the war in Ukraine.

Branson said that he has known the founder of Tinkoff Bank for 20 years and that the sanctions imposed last year are “unwarranted”.

“Whilst he was a wealthy Russian businessman he has never been an oligarch. I have always known him as a self-made dynamic entrepreneur. That is why I have liked and supported him and continue to do so,” The Times quotes Branson as saying.

In March 2022, the UK imposed sanctions against Oleg Tinkov, later lifting some of them. After that, Tinkov’s family sold its stake in Tinkoff Bank to Interros, an investment company of Russia’s wealthiest businessman, Vladimir Potanin.

Tinkov said that he was forced to divest the stake after publishing an anti-war post on Instagram. He claimed that the Russian presidential administration had threatened to nationalise the bank if Tinkov did not sever ties with it.

In October 2022, Oleg Tinkov renounced his Russian citizenship.

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