Roman Abramovich stays in Moscow and misses Chelsea FA Cup final win as visa is delayed amid Russian spy poisoning row
The British authorities are yet to approve the Russian oligarch's application after his visa expired last month, it's been reported
CHELSEA FC’s owner Roman Abramovich is barred from Britain after a high profile Government review of oligarch visas for the UK - it emerged last night.
Friends of the billionaire revealed one of Britain’s richest men was in Russia as the Home Office have taken longer than usual to renew his documents – without offering any explanation.
The move threatens to plunge relations between the UK Government and Moscow to a new low.
Mr Abramovich – who missed Chelsea’s FA Cup final victory in Saturday – is seen as a close ally of Vladimir Putin given the vast business empire he has been able to develop over the past 20 years.
Quizzed yesterday, Security Minister Ben Wallace said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases.”
But sources yesterday told The Sun Mr Abramovich’s investor visa ran out more than three weeks ago when he was abroad – before Chelsea’s semi-final success against Southampton.
He has been unable to get back into Britain ever since.
Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd vowed to review the 700 investor visas given to wealthy Russians between 2008 and 2015 in the wake of the Salisbury attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Dolls to top dollar rise
ROMAN Abramovich has gone from flogging dolls in a market in the dying days of the USSR to Britain’s 13th richest man — worth £9.3billion.
In the late 1990s he became a billionaire overnight by buying oil and aluminium firms cheaply in President Boris Yeltsin’s state assets fire sale.
In 2005 he sold his 73 per cent stake in oil company Sibneft to state-owned gas giant Gazprom for £10billion.
He still has stakes in steel firm Evraz and miner Norilsk Nickel and bought Chelsea for £140million in 2003.
Late business partner Boris Berezovsky once accused him of intimidating him into selling cut-price shares. The case was axed after a judge deemed Mr Berezovsky not credible.
Mr Abramovich’s assets in- clude a £1.5billion super yacht and a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, West London.
Admirers say a bigger asset is his knowing which up-and-coming Russian to befriend — and being smart enough to not threaten the country’s leaders.
Overseas tycoons can pick up an investor visa if they vow to spend more than £2million on the UK economy.
Mr Abramovich, 51, is ranked as the 13th richest man in Britain with a cool £9.3billion. He grew his fortune after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the last 1990s and bought Chelsea in 2003.
One personal close to the billionaire refused to comment other than insist the visa had not been denied.
A fellow oligarch told the FT: “There’s something up with his visa.
“I don’t know what it is either. Let’s hope they sort it out soon.”
The dramatic development came as Ministers were separately accused of risking national security by “turning a blind eye” to the Russian “dirty money” flowing through the City.
A blistering report by a cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee of MPs said Vladimir Putin and his cronies were continuing to use London as a base for their “corrupt assets”
The Committee didn’t reference any individual oligarch by name.
But the MPs urged Theresa May to show “stronger political leadership” and take further sanctions against Kremlin connected individuals by plugging “gaps” in the sanctions regime.
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Russian energy giant Gazprom was able to sell £650million-worth of bonds in London two days after Britain expelled 23 diplomats over the Salisbury attack.
Committee chair Tom Tugendhat said: “Moscow has turned from being a corrupt state to an exporter of instability.
“London’s markets are enabling the Kremlin’s efforts.”
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