Sofia Abramovich, the daughter of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, has hit out at the actions of Russian president Vladimir Putin after the nation declared war on Ukraine.
Sofia has posted an image on her Instagram insisting that the Russian people do not support his stance on Ukraine.
It is a notable development as Sofia’s father shares closes tie with the Russian president and comes after Labour MP Chris Bryant called for Abramovich to be banned from owning the Blues following Russia's decision to invade its geographical neighbour.
Abramovich has owned Chelsea since 2003 and overseen the most successful period in the club's history, winning countless trophies - including the Champions League twice - but is rarely seen at Stamford Bridge nowadays.
Sofia posted an image which had the message “Russia wants a war with Ukraine” but with Russia crossed out and replaced instead to read “Putin wants a war with Ukraine”.
Underneath that message read another pointed sentence: “The biggest and most successful lie of Kremlin’s propaganda is that most Russians stand with Putin.”
To hammer home the point, there was an image of Putin below the message under a red blocked image to highlight the disapproval.
In the summer of 2018, Abramovich withdrew his application for the renewal of his British visa by the Home Office.
Chelsea subsequently halted plans to build a £500million stadium in south-west London due to the "unfavourable investment climate" and the lack of assurances about Abramovich's immigration status, with the club’s owner having planned to invest hundreds of millions of pounds for the construction of the stadium.
Abramovich has since obtained Israeli citizenship, meaning he now has visa-free entry rights to the United Kingdom for a period of up to six months.
He was in attendance for Chelsea’s Premier League clash against Manchester United earlier this season, his first visit to Stamford Bridge in over three years.
The Chelsea owner was in London earlier that week to host Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, for a campaign against anti-Semitism held in the English capital.
Prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed Abramovich "has not been the subject of targeted measures" after mistakenly telling the House of Commons he'd been sanctioned by the government.
On reading this report, Bryant told the Commons on Thursday: "Following some of the reports in The Sun and other newspapers today, I've got hold of a leaked document from 2019 from the Home Office.
"Which says, in relation to Mr Abramovich, as part of HMGs [Her Majesty's Government] Russia strategy, aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interests to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices.
"An example of this is Abramovich admitting in court proceedings that he paid for political influence.
"Therefore HMG is focused on ensuring individuals linked to illicit finance and malign activity are unable to base themselves in the UK and will use the relevant tools at its disposal including immigration powers to prevent this.
"That's nearly three years ago, and yet remarkably little has been done in relation. Surely Mr Abramovich should no longer be able to own a football club in this country?
"Surely we should be looking at seizing some of his assets, including his £152m home? And making sure that other people who've had tier one visas like this are not engaged in malign activity in the UK."
There is no suggestion Roman Abramovich is connected to terrorism or involved in any wrongdoing.
Sofia is extremely passionate about horseback riding and is a professional equestrian, representing Russia in several equestrian events.
She is the daughter of Abramovich’s second wife, the former Russian Aeroflot stewardess, Irina Malandina and is one of five children (along with Ilya, Arina, Arkadiy and Anna) of the Chelsea owner from that marriage.
Abramovich subsequently married Dasha Zhukova, daughter of a prominent Russian oligarch Alexander Zhukov, with whom he had two children - a son, Aaron Alexander, and a daughter, Leah Lou, before the couple divorced in 2018.
Sofia is said to reside with her mother in an estate in West Sussex and divides her time between London and Sussex.
