Russian Billionaire Calls His Citizenship 'A Stamp Of Shame' Over Ukraine Invasion

As the co-founder of oil giant Yukos, Nevzlin could have lived a fabulous, cozy life as a Russian oligarch, the powerful billionaires known for controlling large swaths of Russian industries, as well as for floating around the globe on massive yachts.

Khodorkovsky ended up spending a decade in prison on tax evasion and fraud charges. During the trial, Nevzlin fled to Israel, and was later sentenced to life in prison for murder and financial crimes, which he has consistently denied, and for which Israel has never extradited him back to Russia.

"I was one of the first to be hit by Putin. He threw my friends in jails, and killed some of them," he wrote in a recent Facebook post. "Everything Putin touches dies."

But that's just what the Ukraine invasion has finally led Nevzlin to do, as he announced in his Facebook post.

"I, Leonid Nevzlin, refuse Russian citizenship," he wrote. "All these years, like many, I've been compromising keeping this passport."

"Russian citizenship has already become a stamp of shame on itself, which I no longer want to wear on myself. Enough is enough."

The invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions imposed by the West as a result, has been a turning point for many influential figures in Russia. Billionaires like Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Fridman, who were targeted by the sanctions, might not have come out strictly against Putin, but they have called for peace.

In a letter to his employees, Lisin called the lives lost in the conflict "a tragedy that was hard to justify" and called for a diplomatic resolution, Reuters reported.

Whether pressure from Russia's elites gathers steam and helps end the conflict remains to be seen, however.