By Ben Kerrigan-
Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abromavich potentially poses a security risk to the UK, because of his believed close ties with Russia president, Vladimir Putin.
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in defiance of international law, UK prime minister Boris Johnson, announced a raft of hard hitting sanctions against Russia, targeting Russia banks and particular individuals believed to be linked to Putin’s regime in the UK. MP Chris Bryant has called for the Russian billionaire to be included in the list of targeted individuals in the UK to be sanctioned , but the Chelsea football owner has still not been included on any list of persons to be sanctioned in the UK.
The Prime Minister this week said immediate sanctions were being deployed against three “very high net wealth individuals” – Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg. He described these oligarchs as “cronies” of the Russian president.
Sanctions were also issued against the Russian banks Rossiya Bank, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank.
The measures against both the banks and individuals include UK asset freezes, a travel ban and prohibition on British individuals and businesses dealing with them.
The Foreign Office said the institutions being targeted had bankrolled the Russian occupation of Crimea from 2014.
It added that sanctions would also be introduced against members of the Russian Duma and Federation Council who voted to recognise the “independence” of the Donetsk and Luhansk territories.
Confirmation of the measures came after the PM chaired an emergency meeting of the Cobra committee early on Tuesday morning.
The Prime Minister has also applied pressure on Uefa not to hold its Champions League final in St Petersburg in June. He said there should be “no chance of holding football tournaments in a Russia that invades sovereign countries”.
There are still concerns in some quarters as to why Chelsea football owner, Abromavich has not been targeted among the list of those to be sanctioned, because of the huge wealth he has and its power to be influential in support of President Putin’s regime.
Russia is notorious for sending spies and moles to various countries, and any wealthy Russian presently or formerly close to Putin will need to declare their unreserved opposition to his regime and the current invasion of Russia , at the very least, to be considered for exemption from the list of those targeted for sanctions by the UK.
Earlier this week on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said the prime minister “misspoke” when he claimed Chelsea Football Club’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich faced sanctions.
During a statement in the House of Commons setting out measures against Russia, Mr Johnson said Mr Abramovich was “already facing sanctions”. Mr Abramovich, who made his fortune in oil and gas in the 1990s, became owner of the companies that control Chelsea in 2003 and is reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2018, Switzerland’s federal police advised that the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich posed a “threat to public security and a reputational risk” to the country if he became a resident, it has emerged.
The Chelsea football club owner on Tuesday lost a seven-month legal battle against a newspaper publisher to prevent the publication of information on the reasons for his failure to secure Swiss residency.
Abramovich, who owns a £90m mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, London, had applied for Swiss residency in July 2016, hoping to make the exclusive ski resort of Verbier his official home.
However, after a detailed review of the files concerning one of the world’s richest men, police raised a number of concerns. According to Tamedia, police reported that Abramovich was known for “suspicion of money laundering and presumed contacts with criminal organisations”. They also asserted that there was reason to believe that “the applicant’s assets are at least partially of illegal origin”.
Abramovich’s lawyer, Daniel Glasl, at the time responded to the explosive allegations by filing a request for correction of facts to the federal police. He said he planned to file a criminal complaint against whoever disseminated the information. He said Any suggestion that Mr Abramovich has been involved in money laundering or has contacts with criminal organisations is entirely false. Mr Abramovich has never been charged with participating in money laundering and does not have a criminal record. He has never had, or been alleged to have, connections with criminal organisations.”
After acquiring Chelsea in 2003 and transforming the club’s fortunes with an investment of more than £1.1bn of his own money, Abramovich became the poster boy for the privileged group of Russian moneymen who have made London their home over the last three decades.