Five Russian rich people have already renounced Russian citizenship: what is known about them

Five large Russian entrepreneurs have already renounced Russian citizenship - they condemned the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine and do not want to do business in their homeland and be citizens of the aggressor country.

Photo: IStock

At the end of October, the billionaire Nikolai Storonsky, founder of the British fintech startup Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship, reports Forbes.

“Nick is a British citizen,” a Revolut spokesperson said. This is already the fifth entrepreneur from among the former and current participants in the Forbes rating who has refused a Russian passport in recent months. In 2022, Storonsky took 16th place on the Forbes list, his fortune was estimated at $7,1 billion.

A company representative recalled that the businessman’s position regarding the Russian “military special operation” in Ukraine is known: “he continues to resolutely call for an immediate cessation of hostilities.”

“I join those around the world calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and diplomatic solutions. No more people should die in this unnecessary conflict,” Storonsky said.

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After the outbreak of the war, Revolut offered relocation assistance to all employees in Ukraine, and also closed offices in Russia, offering relocation assistance to Russian employees.

On October 19, Ukraine imposed sanctions against the father of the billionaire, General Director of Gazprom Promgaz JSC Nikolai Storonsky Sr. As stated by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Storonsky Sr. “is responsible for material and financial support for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Mykola Storonsky and Ukrainian Vlad Yatsenko founded banking startup Revolut in 2015 in the UK.
The British authorities fear Storonsky's ties to Russia, and the Revolut cryptocurrency trading service is also worrying the authorities.

Revolut is still awaiting a decision on its application for a UK banking license, which the company filed back in January 2021.

October 10 billionaire Yuri Milner сообщилthat he and his family renounced the citizenship of the Russian Federation in the summer of 2022.

My family and I left Russia for good in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And this summer, we officially completed the process of renouncing our Russian citizenship.

— Yuri Milner (@yurimilner) October 10, 2022

“My family and I left Russia permanently in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And this summer, we officially completed the process of renunciation of Russian citizenship, ”said the businessman.

Yuri Milner in 1999 received Israeli citizenship. After a couple of years, he moved to the USA.

Forbes estimated Milner's net worth at $2022 billion in 7,3. The businessman took 15th place in the list of the richest Russians according to the magazine.

Earlier this year, Yuri Milner, along with some other Russians such as Pavel Durov, asked Forbes not to consider them Russian businessmen.

Russian-speaking Israeli billionaire Leonid Nevzlin also I refuse from Russian citizenship. He fled to Israel nearly two decades ago after being persecuted by Vladimir Putin's government.

“I, Leonid Nevzlin, renounce Russian citizenship. All these years, like many others, I made compromises, keeping this passport for myself. I was one of the first to be hit by Putin. He threw my friends into prison and killed some of them. He stole a business, deprived of a house in Moscow. I spent almost 20 years outside of Russia, but this is what allowed me to see the process of decay and decomposition taking place in it better than those left inside, ”Nevzlin wrote on March 8 on his Facebook page.

“Russian citizenship has already become a stigma that I no longer want to bear,” he wrote. “I can't afford to be a citizen of a country that kills the children of other countries and tortures its own children who don't agree with it. I don’t want to be an accomplice of a criminal regime and an accomplice in a crime against humanity, even if only by having the status of a citizen of this state, which has already compromised itself forever as a follower of the fascist regime.”

Everything that Putin “touched” perished, he added.

Nevzlin founded the Yukos oil company after the fall of the Soviet Union with businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He fled to Israel in 2003 after Putin targeted big companies and top executives.

Nevzlin was convicted in absentia in Russia in 2008 of conspiracy to murder. According to Haaretz, the Russian government has asked Israel to extradite him, but Israel has so far refused to do so.

In June, another billionaire, the founder of the Freedom Finance investment company, refused citizenship of the Russian Federation. Timur Turlov, who has lived in Kazakhstan for more than 10 years and this year received the citizenship of this country.

On June 9, Turlov announced on Instagram that he had received a Kazakhstani passport. “One can breathe freely here, and I believe that Kazakhstan, thanks to its peace-loving and hospitable policies, will be able to build a new, richer, more efficient, fair state,” he wrote.

It is impossible to have a second citizenship in Kazakhstan, so the businessman had to give up both the Russian passport and the passport of the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, reports Forbes. According to him, the naturalization process began five years ago, when Turlov received a residence permit. A five-year residence permit is a key requirement for obtaining citizenship. Timur Turlov is a tax resident of Kazakhstan, where he has been living with his family for over 10 years.

The businessman himself told Forbes that he submitted to the immigration service of Kazakhstan documents on renunciation of the citizenship of both countries - without this, he simply could not get a Kazakhstani passport.

Timur Turlov is the founder and main owner of the Freedom holding, which includes the investment company Freedom Finance, online broker Freedom24, Freedom Finance Bank. Freedom also owns a minority stake in the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange (9,76% after IPO in November 2021). Freedom Finance provides brokerage, depository and dealer services primarily in Kazakhstan and Russia, specializing in the American securities market. Since October 2019, the American Freedom Holding has been trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

In September 2020, 32-year-old Timur Turlov became a dollar billionaire thanks to the rise in the quotes of his investment company Freedom Holding. In 2021, Turlov first became a member of the Forbes global list, taking 1517th place with a fortune of $2,1 billion. -th place.

In early June, Turlov announced plans to move Russian business beyond the holding company - he would personally buy the investment company Freedom Finance and Freedom Finance Bank, registered in Russia, from Freedom, rebrand and sell the assets to the Russian group of his top managers. “Now we do not see the possibility of keeping a Russian business inside an American holding company due to the ban on any investments in Russia for US residents, as well as due to a large number of restrictions on transactions with unfriendly non-residents,” Turlov said in an interview. According to the businessman, there are no specific plans regarding the stake in the St. Petersburg Exchange yet.

Businessman Oleg Tinkoff On October 31, he wrote on his Instagram page that he had renounced Russian citizenship, reports Voice of America. Forbes in 2021 estimated Tinkov’s fortune at $4,7 million. He took 32nd place in the ranking of “200 richest businessmen in Russia.”

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“I have officially renounced Russian citizenship! I can't see all this and be associated with Putin's fascism! I cannot see how my former compatriots kill and rob peaceful people just like that. I want to “unsee” it all, especially after what I had to go through the last 3 years. Life is one, and it is PRICELESS, ”Tinkov wrote on Instagram under a photo of a certificate confirming his withdrawal from Russian citizenship.

“I hope more businessmen will follow me and stop working for fascism, give up their businesses and citizenship,” Tinkov wrote.

Later, the post disappeared from the businessman's page. Tinkov accused "Putin's trolls" of removing the post. He reiterated that he was renouncing Russian citizenship and was "against the killing of civilians."

The businessman also said that he was beginning the process of withdrawing his Tinkoff brand from the bank of the same name.

In an interview with The New York Times, the businessman said that the Russian authorities actually forced him to sell his family stake in TCS Group after he made anti-war remarks.

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