Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov, who has called Moscow's war against Ukraine "crazy," has sold his stake in the company he founded to a firm controlled by Vladimir Potanin, a tycoon close to President Vladimir Putin.
Potanin's Interros Capital said on April 28 that it was acquiring Tinkov's 35 percent stake in TCS Group Holding, the group that owns Russia's second-largest bank, Tinkoff Bank.
Interros added that Russia's central bank had approved deal.
Price details were not revealed but the RBK news agency estimated the deal at about $2.4 billion.
Cyprus-based TCS Group Holding controls a broad range of companies from banking and insurance to mobile phones.
The 54-year-old Tinkov, who has long resided outside of Russia to receive treatment for leukemia, has strongly criticized Russia's aggression against Ukraine on social media after being targeted by British sanctions alongside other wealthy Russian businessmen over the war.
Tinkov condemned the war in Ukraine again last week saying that 90 percent of Russians did not support it.
"I don't see ANY beneficiary of this crazy war! Innocent people and soldiers are dying," he wrote in a post on Instagram on April 19.
Potanin, 61, is the head of mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), which has benefited from high metals prices in recent months. He is Russia's second-richest man, with a fortune estimated at $17.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine, RFE/RL reports.
