Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is back in Moscow on Tuesday after his pricey plane was booted from Israel and his two megayachts, worth a combined $1 billion, raced toward the safety of international waters.
The billionaire Chelsea soccer team owner is feeling the sting of sanctions against him. He was among seven Russian tycoons added to a British sanctions list last week in an effort to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin over his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The United Kingdom alleges that Evraz, the steel giant Abramovich owns, supplied steel to Putin for his tanks.
European Union diplomats have embraced similar sanctions.
Politico reported EU diplomats finalized the text of a new round of sanctions on Russia on Monday, which will be the fourth set since Putin ordered his forces to attack its Eastern European neighbor.
Abramovich, who also holds Israeli and Portuguese citizenship, has denied having close ties to the Russian president. A BBC documentary that aired Monday night seemed to rebut the claim, accusing Abramovich of being “Putin’s money man” and extorting billions.
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Abramovich’s lawyers claim he made his money legally and not off the backs of Russian taxpayers.
Abramovich’s 460-foot yacht Solaris made a beeline toward international waters after fleeing Montenegro waters for Turkey on Monday, following a warning from the Balkan nation that it, too, would mirror sanctions against Abramovich. Staff at the Porto Montenegro Marina, in the coastal town of Tivat, said they had been told to seize the vessel if it docked, the Daily Mail reported.
The Solaris is worth $600 million, according to SuperYacht Fan.
The billionaire’s other boat, the 533-foot Eclipse, was spotted sailing east, north of the coast of Libya after leaving St. Maarten in the Caribbean last week. St. Maarten is a part of the EU and would have been able to seize the $590 million luxury yacht.
Abramovich flew his Boeing 767 out of London last week before the sanctions kicked in. His other jet is believed to be parked in Dubai.
His other modes of transportation include three helicopters, a Bugatti, a Ferrari, and a Pagani. Combined, they cost about $6.1 million.
Abramovich, a college dropout who has seven children, is well known across Europe as the longtime majority owner of Chelsea, a status he was forced to relinquish as part of the British sanctions against him.
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Despite Abramovich’s assets being frozen, the team was granted a new license to continue “football-related activities.” The license does not allow Chelsea to sell tickets. The team was ridiculed after releasing a statement Tuesday requesting its FA Cup quarter-final match against Middlesbrough be played behind closed doors on the grounds of “sporting integrity.”
Middlesbrough slammed the request as “bizarre, without any merit whatsoever,” and called it “ironic in the extreme.”
“Chelsea and sporting integrity do not belong in the same sentence,” chairman Steve Gibson said.
