Dead or alive: Russian businessman offers $1 million to capture Putin

A $1 reward for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin was offered by Russian military entrepreneur Alex Konanykhin in a post he posted on social media this week as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Photo: Shutterstock

“I promise to pay $1 to the officer(s) who, in fulfilling their constitutional duty, arrest Putin as a war criminal in accordance with Russian and international law,” Konanykhin wrote on LinkedIn. “Putin is not the president of Russia because he came to power as a result of a special operation to bomb residential buildings in Russia, and then violated the Constitution by canceling free elections and killing his opponents.”

“As an ethnic Russian and citizen of Russia, I consider it my moral duty to contribute to the denazification of Russia. I will continue to help Ukraine in its heroic efforts to resist the onslaught of the Putin Horde,” the businessman added.

The post is accompanied by an image with a photo of Putin and the words “Wanted: dead or alive. Vladimir Putin for massacre. It is noteworthy that after three days on the platform, the post was deleted. It is not yet clear whether the businessman himself or LinkedIn admins did this.

Konanykhin has a turbulent history with the Russian government

According to a 1996 article in The Washington Post, Konanykhin studied at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology before dropping out to open a student building society. He then went on to a number of other businesses, including banking, stocks, and real estate.

By age 25, he had an empire of over 100 firms. By 1992, his companies were worth about $300 million. He was even part of the first delegation of then Russian President Boris Yeltsin to Washington that year.

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In 1996, while living in the US, Konanykhin and his wife were arrested by federal immigration agents on charges of violating the terms of their US visas. The case appears to have been brought after Russian authorities claimed he embezzled $8 million from Russian Exchange Bank in Moscow.

The case lasted several weeks: FBI agents testified that the Russian mafia received an order for the life of Konanykhin, and a former KGB agent said that he had serious doubts about the charges against the oligarch.

During the trial, Konanykhin said that some of his corporate assistants at the Russkaya Birzha bank began pressuring him for money and threatening him, prompting him to move to Hungary. He claimed that he was then threatened with violence again, prompting him to flee to the Czech Republic and then to New York.

Konanykhin complained about threats to Russian officials and even to Yeltsin himself. At some point, the authorities stopped investigating the threats and instead opened an investigation against him, alleging that he illegally transferred $8 million from a bank to his personal accounts abroad. Russian authorities said his version of events was fake and aimed at slandering his former employees.

Eventually an agreement was reached and he was released from custody and ultimately granted political asylum. However, just a few years later, the Board of Immigration Appeals canceled the political asylum and ordered his deportation. Konanykhin and his wife tried to flee to Canada, but were arrested.

The couple's deportation was called off after a series of emergency hearings after U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis considered the decision unlawful, stating: “I have the strong impression that people in the executive branch are very eager to return this man to Russia, for what reason I cannot say. It smells bad." In 2007, he was again granted asylum.

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In 2011, he founded TransparentBusiness, which helps companies manage their remote workforce. He is also a member of Unicorn Hunters, a show that allows unicorn founders to perform in front of millions of investors around the world.

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