A Russian-born entrepreneur has put a $1 million bounty on the head of President Vladimir Putin.
Recently, Russian-born entrepreneur Alex Konanykhin offered $1 million to any military officer who catches Russian President Vladimir Putin “dead or alive” for allegedly committing “war crimes” in his invasion of Ukraine.
“I promise to pay $1,000,000 to the officer(s) who, complying with their constitutional duty, arrest(s) Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws,” wrote Konanykhin on Facebook.
In his post, Konanykhin claimed that Putin is not the Russian president since he came to power as the result of a special operation of blowing up apartment buildings in Russia, then violated the Constitution by eliminating free elections and murdering his opponents.
“As an ethnic Russian and a Russian citizen, I see it as my moral duty to facilitate the denazification of Russia. I will continue my assistance to Ukraine in its heroic efforts to withstand the onslaught of Putin’s Orda,” added the businessman.
The post was accompanied by an image with a photo of Putin that read, “Wanted: Dead or alive. Vladimir Putin for mass murder.”
The Russian-based businessman has now deleted the post.
However, in another post, Alex Konanykhin asked a thousand other people to chip in a million each to the bounty to make it a billion.
According to a report, Konanykhin shares a rough past with the Russian government. Konanykhin, who studied at the Moscow Physics and Technical Institute, entered into several businesses, including banking, stocks and real estate.
He had built an empire of over 100 firms worth about $300 million by 1992. He was even a part of then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s first delegation to Washington that year.
In 1996, during his stay in the US, Konanykhin and his wife were arrested by federal immigration agents on charges of violating the conditions of their American visas. The arrests had come after Russian authorities had alleged that he embezzled $8 million from the Russian Exchange Bank in Moscow.
During the trial, Konanykhin had testified that some of his corporate aides at the Russian Exchange Bank began pressurising him for money and issued threats. He had said that he left for Hungary, where he received more threats, prompting him to flee to the Czech Republic and then to New York.
ICC to start investigation against Russian President Putin over war crimes
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also announced it will be investigating Russia over possible war crimes committed following the invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan revealed that he believes “alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine” and an investigation into Russia’s actions will be launched as rapidly as possible.
He had said the probe was initiated after 39 countries that are parties to the Rome Statute had petitioned the ICC to begin an investigation.
The announcement comes days after widely-banned cluster munitions killed one child and two adult civilians at a preschool in Okhtyrka, Ukraine.
The ICC prosecutor had claimed that there was a “reasonable basis” to believe that war crimes have occurred during the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
