MOSCOW: Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov is garnering a lot of interest - and accruing a lot of approval - after he took to Instagram to criticise the war against Ukraine started by President Vladimir Putin.

There is no one who benefits from the war. “The generals, waking up from their drunkenness, have realised that they have a s***ty army,” Tinkov wrote on the social network. But the army cannot be good if the whole country is in the muck, “in nepotism, sycophancy and servility”, Tinkow criticised.

The billionaire called the war “senseless”. Innocent civilians and soldiers would die. “Ninety percent of Russians are against the war,” he claimed. At the same time, he demanded that the West give Putin a face-saving opportunity to pull out of the war. This was the only way to end the “massacre”, he said.

By early Wednesday (April 20), Tinkov’s entry had already been “liked” by almost 100,000 users. In addition, the post was commented on almost 20,000 times within a very short time.

Instagram was banned in Russia last month, though many locals who want to see it have found workarounds.

Tinkov made his first capital importing electronic goods before founding a brewery under his name. He finally became a billionaire by founding an Internet bank. Tinkoff Bank did not comment on its major shareholder’s verbose criticism of Putin’s war.

Tinkov has lived mainly abroad for several years after contracting leukaemia. He was one of the first among Russia’s super-rich to criticise the war on Ukraine. As early as February, he called the Russian attack “inconceivable and criminal”.

The Russian leadership should rather invest its money in fighting diseases, he demanded. In Moscow, such statements are now punishable as denigration of the Russian army. Nevertheless, as a Russian billionaire, Tinkov also fell under the sanctions imposed by Britain on the Russian financial elite.

 - dpa