Tinkoff Credit Systems emerged from the 2006 Continental team Tinkoff Restaurants, which was based in Russia and headed by Alexander Kuznetsov (Александр Кузнецов), employed Russian cyclists and was based upon the Saint Petersburg Lokomotiv team.

[1][2][3][4] Of the eleven cyclists employed by the team, eight moved on to Tinkoff Credit Systems: Pavel Brutt, Ilya Chernetskiy, Mikhail Ignatiev, Serguei Klimov, Anton Mindlin, Ivan Rovny, Alexander Serov and Nikolai Trusov.

In January 2007, the Italian Ambassador to Russia Vittorio Surdo supported the formation of the Russian-Italian team Tinkoff Credit Systems explaining "for Italians, cycling is sacred, since the Prime Minister of Italy is an avid cyclist.

Owner Oleg Tinkoff had worked hard to build links with the Italian cycling community, which garnered wildcard invites to the major RCS races, including the 2007 Giro d'Italia.

[2] After the 2013 Tour de France, Oleg Tinkov announced he was ending his sponsorship of Saxo–Tinkoff in favour of reviving Tinkoff Credit Systems from January 2014, with a commitment for five years.