The co-founder and head of the British fintech start-up Revolut Nikolay Storonsky renounced his Russian citizenship due to opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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A similar step was announced this week by businessman Oleg Tinkov (Oleg Tinkoff). After the start of the invasion, he was one of the first of a handful of Russian businessmen who openly spoke out against the war and criticized the Russian army.
“Nik is a British citizen. Earlier this year he renounced his citizenship, which he acquired by birth in Russia. His position on war is publicly known: war is absolutely abhorrent and he continues to strongly call for an immediate end to the fighting ,” said a Revolut spokesperson.
The fintech boss’ decision comes as his father, Nikolay Storonsky Sr, was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government earlier this month, over his position as director-general at Gazprom Promgaz – the research arm of Russia’s state-owned gas company.
The sanctions act to freeze Storonsky Sr’s Ukrainian assets and block him from entering the country of his birth.
Aside from Storonsky Jr, Revolut’s other co-founder, Vlad Yatsenko, is a dual British-Ukrainian citizen.
“When I was growing up, the idea of a war between Russia and Ukraine was unthinkable. Not only because war and the loss of innocent lives is always bad, but also because for me Ukrainians and Russians are related,” he wrote in a letter published on the Revolut website. “My father is Ukrainian. I have family and friends all over Ukraine – people I care about and fear a lot,” Storonsky said.
