Ukraine crisis: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich hit by UK sanctions

The assets of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, were frozen on Thursday, along with those of six other Russian oligarchs after the Boris Johnson government announced a fresh tranche of sanctions following demands that it act more against Russian individuals with assets in the United Kingdom.

Abramovich’s one time business partner, leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska, is also sanctioned with the same measures, besides Russian president Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man Igor Sechin, and four more of Putin’s inner circle.

Given the impact the sanctions would have on the Chelsea football club and the potential knock on effects, the government has published a licence which authorises a number of football-related activities to continue at Chelsea.

This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football related activity which will in turn protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs. The licence will only allow certain explicitly named actions to ensure the designated individual is not able to circumvent UK sanctions. The licence will be kept under constant review and we will work closely with the football authorities.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said as part of the UK’s efforts to isolate Putin and those around him, the seven oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15 billion - will have their assets in the UK frozen, banned from travelling to the UK and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.

Abramovich is estimated to be worth more than £9 billion, besides stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel; Deripaska has stakes in the En+ Group; Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft; Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank; Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom; Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft; and Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies."

Truss added: “Today’s sanctions show once again that oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society. With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression.

The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame. Our support for Ukraine will not waver. We will not stop in this mission to ramp up the pressure on the Putin regime and choke off funds to his brutal war machine."

Officials said the UK has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries since the invasion, with over 500 of them now covered by the UK’s sanctions list.

The Economic Crime Bill going through parliament will come into force next week will also significantly simplify the process of imposing sanctions, allowing the UK to more easily sanction individuals and stop oligarchs threatening the UK with multi-million pound lawsuits for damages at the taxpayer’s expense and also allow the UK to mirror allies’ designations.

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The officials added that the UK will keep going further, faster and deeper to punish Putin’s regime for this callous war.

An asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person and which are held in the UK. It will also prevent funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.

A travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual to be an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.