“Oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or in our society,” said Foreign Minister Liz Truss.
“With their close ties to Putin, they are complicit in his aggression,” he added, announcing a new list of seven sanctioned men that, in addition to Abramovich, includes his former business partner Oleg Deripaska, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, and the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller.
The list is completed by the directors of the VTB bank, Andrei Kostin, of the hydrocarbon distribution company Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev, and of the Rossiya Bank, Dmitri Lebedev.
“In view of the significant impact that the sanctions would have on Chelsea Football Club and the potential repercussions,” Boris Johnson’s executive published at the same time “a license to allow a number of football-related activities to continue” at the club. .
Thus, Chelsea, which is third in the Premier League behind Manchester City and Liverpool, will be able to continue playing matches, pay the salaries of its employees – players and coaches included -, taxes and bills related to its maintenance, the costs of travel and the previously agreed transfers of soccer players.
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However, the license does not include the sale of new tickets or new transfers of players by the club that won its second Champions League in 2021.
Denouncing the restrictions on its day-to-day operations as too harsh, the club has called for talks with the British government seeking to amend the license so that it can “operate as normally as possible”.
The British executive valued Abramovich’s fortune at 9.4 billion pounds (12.3 billion dollars, 11.2 billion euros), which has a 15-bedroom mansion in a luxurious London neighborhood, half a dozen yachts – the largest of which is 162 meters in length – and is the main shareholder of the steel giant Evraz.
The group’s shares fell 12% on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday before its listing was suspended to “protect investors pending clarification on the impact of the sanctions.”
After making his fortune in hydrocarbons, in 2005 Abramovich sold his 73% stake in Russian oil company Sibneft to state gas titan Gazprom for 9.87 billion pounds, according to the British government.
And “he is one of the few oligarchs of the 1990s to maintain prominence under Putin,” he added, stressing that “none of our allies have yet sanctioned Abramovich.”
Fearing being included in the list of those affected by British sanctions, Abramovich had announced last week that he was putting the famous west London club, which he has owned for 19 years, up for sale.
“The sale of the club will not be done in a rush and will follow its normal course”, he had assured about the team he bought in 2003 for 140 million pounds and expected to sell for 3,000 million after having made huge investments.
He specified that he would not request repayment of the loans he granted to the club, estimated at 1,500 million pounds, and that the “net proceeds” of his sale would go to “all the victims of the war in Ukraine.”
According to the British press, a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly – co-owner of the Los Angles Dodgers baseball club – and Swiss millionaire Hansjorg Wyss – founder of the medical equipment company Synthes – has already made an offer.
According to the Financial Times, another American millionaire, Josh Harris, was also contemplating making a bid. Turkish millionaire Mushin Bayrak also expressed his interest.
Source: Ambito
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