Move against oligarchs aims to answer criticism that Britain has ignored Russian influence

[ad_1]

The decision means that Abramovich now faces a travel ban, barring him from Britain, as well as an asset freeze that effectively takes control from him of Chelsea, which he has said he was trying to sell.

However, the government said it would grant legal permission for the club “to continue playing matches and other football related activity” in order to protect the country’s premier football league, “loyal fans and other clubs.”

Abramovich, 55, has been a high-profile figure in Britain for years because of his ownership of Chelsea, where he has made a habit of replacing coaches who failed to guide the club to success quickly.

As the billionaire owner of an elite soccer club, he has been the Russian oligarch best known to the British public at a time when the country’s relations with Moscow were often strained, particularly after the nerve agent attack in Britain in 2018 on Sergei Skripal, a form Russian agent, and his daughter.

Until Thursday, however, Abramovich had managed to avoid being the target of financial measures by Britain or other Western nations.

Abramovich has denied links to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. But in its statement, the British government said Abramovich had a “close relationship” with Putin for decades. “This association has included obtaining a financial benefit or other material benefit from Putin and the government of Russia,” it said.

Also among the seven individuals added to the sanctions list is Oleg Deripaska, who the British government said has stakes in the Russian energy and aluminum company EN+ Group, and is best known in British political circles because of media reports about meetings in 2008 on his “ super yacht” with politicians including Peter Mandelson, a Cabinet minister in the previous Labor government.

The new move against the oligarchs is likely to deny some of the criticism of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been accused of moving too slowly to tackle Russian influence in London.

Since he became prime minister in 2019, Johnson’s Conservative Party, or its individual constituency associations, have received about $2.5 million from donors who are either Russian or who made money from Russia, according to calculations by the opposition Labor Party, based on disclosures to the Electoral Commission. Johnson has also been accused of ignoring the warnings of security officials when he nominated Evgeny Lebedev, a newspaper proprietor, to the House of Lords.

While Johnson’s government has pressed for strong financial and banking sanctions against Moscow, it has been criticized by some of its own lawmakers for being slow to accept refugees from Ukraine.

In a statement, Johnson said that the latest action showed that there would be “no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

[ad_2]