A jet linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich landed in Moscow early on Tuesday, after a brief stop in Istanbul, FLIGHTRADAR24 data shows.
The jet linked to Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, arrived in Istanbul from Israel on Monday, shortly after he was seen in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
Abramovich was among seven Russian billionaires added to a British sanctions list last week to try to isolate President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. European Union diplomats have embraced a similar move.
The Russian oligarch, who also holds Israeli and Portuguese citizenship, has denied having close ties to Putin.
A photograph, obtained by Reuters, showed Abramovich sitting in Tel Aviv airport’s VIP lounge with a face mask pulled down over his chin on Monday.
It could not be confirmed whether Abramovich boarded the flight to Istanbul from Tel Aviv on Monday or the one from Istanbul to Moscow.
Abramovich said last week he was selling Chelsea, but that sale is now on hold with the London club operating under a special government licence, and the Premier League board has disqualified him as a club director.
A transport ministry source said on Friday that the UK was searching out helicopters and jets belonging to the sanctioned oligarchs.
Multiple properties including opulent yachts worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been seized by authorities in Europe in recent days.
Refinitiv ship tracking data showed Abramovich’s $600 million yacht Solaris was underway using engine off the coast of Albania Tuesday morning with the status “awaiting orders”.
Its destination was shown as Turkey after taking off from Montenegro but that was removed late on Monday.
