Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is being sanctioned, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced.
The Chelsea owner has been added to the UK’s sanctions list a week after he put the club up for sale to distance himself from his asset in the wake of Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich has owned Chelsea since 2003 and has always staunchly denied any current political links to Russia’s ruling elite, but Boris Johnson’s Government has now frozen all his UK assets.
Chelsea will be given a special licence to continue operation, but the sale of the Stamford Bridge club is now on hold.
The shape of Chelsea’s long-term future has naturally been thrown into doubt, but Government ministers were quick to insist any damage would be limited.
Nadine Dorries said Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine involved “new levels of evil by the hour” and the Government had announced further sanctions “against individuals linked to the Russian Government”.
“This list includes Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club,” she said.
She acknowledged this would have an impact on the Premier League side but a special licence would enable it to continue operating.
Nadine Dorries said on Twitter: “Our priority is to hold those who have enabled the Putin regime to account.
“Today’s sanctions obviously have a direct impact on Chlesea and its fans. We have been working hard to ensure the club and the national game are not unnecessarily harmed by these important sanctions.
“To ensure the club can continue to compete and operate we are issuing a special licence that will allow fixtures to be fulfilled, staff to be paid and existing ticket holders to attend matches while, crucially, depriving Abramovich of benefiting from his ownership of the club.
“I know this brings some uncertainty, but the Government will work with the league & clubs to keep football being played while ensuring sanctions hit those intended. Football clubs are cultural assets and the bedrock of our communities. We’re committed to protecting them.”
Other oligarchs have been sanctioned alongside Roman Abramovich, including Oleg Deripaska – an industrialist worth £2 billion who has had close links with the British political establishment.
The list includes:
– Roman Abramovich: owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel.
– Oleg Deripaska: has stakes in En+ Group.
– Igor Sechin: chief executive of Rosneft.
– Andrey Kostin: chairman of VTB bank.
– Alexei Miller: CEO of energy company Gazprom.
– Nikolai Tokarev: president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft.
– Dmitri Lebedev: 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.”
It comes as the “despicable” bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine is a war crime committed by Russian troops, the UK’s armed forces minister has said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike in Mariupol was part of a “genocide” on his people.
Three people, including a child, were killed in the attack, according to the besieged city’s council.
Defence minister James Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that UK intelligence believes the strike came from artillery rather than the air, but that Britain is “still looking at exactly (what happened)”.
The Army veteran said that, even if Russian troops did not deliberately target the medical complex, the attack – which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described as “depraved” – still amounts to a war crime.
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