Roman Abramovich should no longer be allowed to own Chelsea Football Club, a Labour MP has said in parliament amid fresh calls for additional sanctions to be placed on Russian businessmen with assets in the UK.
Speaking under parliamentary privilege after Russia president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine, the MP for Rhondda Chris Bryant said that Abramovich should be “no longer able to own a football club in this country” after reading an excerpt of what he claimed was a leaked 2019 document from the Home Office.
Abramovich has always vehemently denied any suggestion that he has direct links to Putin, has been contacted for comment in relation to Mr Bryant’s allegation.
Reading directly from the document, Bryant said: "‘As part of HMG’s [Her Majesty’s Government’s] Russia strategy aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interest to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices’.
“‘HMG is focused on ensuring that his link 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 is 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 £152million home? And making sure that other people who have had Tier 1 visas like this are not engaged in malign activity?”
Abramovich, who withdrew an application for a Tier 1 visa in 2018 and has since become a citizen of Israel and Portugal, attended his first game at Stamford Bridge in three years in November and was at the recent Club World Cup win in Abu Dhabi.
On Tuesday Abramovich and former Arsenal majority owner Alisher Usmanov were named in parliament by Dame Margaret Hodge as Russian “kleptocrats” who should face sanctions.
A fresh wave of sanctions are expected to be announced by prime minister Boris Johnson in the next 24 hours.
