Russian Businessman Puts $1 Million Bounty On Putin's Head To Get Him Alive

A Russian businessman has promised a $1 million reward on Vladimir Putin and urged the country's military officers to bring the president to justice.

"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," Entrepreneur Alex Konanykhin wrote on LinkedIn. "Putin is not the Russian president as 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." An image of Putin accompanied the social media post with the caption "Wanted: Dead or alive. Vladimir Putin for mass murder."

"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. Orda is the Russian term for," which means a predatory, plundering gang.

Konanykhin was arrested in 1996 while residing in the United States, as the authorities claimed he had embezzled $8 million from the Russian Exchange Bank. He has complicated terms with the Russian government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents testified that the Russian mafia had taken out a contract on Konanykhin and a former KGB agent who said that he had serious doubts about the charges filed against the oligarch.

Konanykhin testified, saying that his corporate aides at the Russian Exchange Bank started pressuring him for money. He claimed that he was then threatened with violence, causing him to flee to the Czech Republic and then to New York. The case was settled and he was eventually, he was granted political asylum. However, the Board of Immigration Appeals revoked the political asylum and ordered that he be deported. Konanykhin and his wife attempted to flee to Canada but were arrested.

According to a 1996 article in The Washington Post, Konanykhin attended the Moscow Physics and Technical Institute before abandoning his studies and opening a student construction cooperative. He expanded into several other businesses, including banking, stocks and real estate. By the age of 25, he had reportedly over 100 firms. By 1992, his companies were worth about $300 million. He was even a part of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin's first delegation to Washington that year.