What the sanctions on Roman Abramovich and six other Russian oligarchs entail

Roman Abramovich will not be able to travel to the UK and can have his assets seized as part of sanctions placed on the Chelsea FC owner (Adam Davy/PA)

The UK Government has announced sanctions strike on seven Russian oligarchs, including Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and billionaire Oleg Deripaska, owner of Aughinish Alumina in Limerick.

What do the sanctions entail and what do they mean for the individuals involved?

What has been announced?

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced a full asset freeze and travel ban on seven men deemed to be “Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs”, according to the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), as part of the UK’s sanctions regime against Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.

In Thursday’s announcement, officials said those slapped with sanctions have business empires, wealth and connections that are closely associated with the Kremlin.

They are said to have a collective net worth of around £15 billion.

Who are they?

– Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC
– Oleg Deripaska, who has stakes in energy and metals company En+ Group and is owner of Aughinish Alumina in Limerick.
– Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russian oil company Rosneft
– Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB bank, Russia’s second largest bank
– Alexei Miller, chief executive of energy giant Gazprom
– Nikolai Tokarev, president of Russian state-owned pipeline company Transneft
– Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors at Bank Rossiya

Why act now?

The British Prime Minister last week promised to publish a list of Russian elites who are said to have links to President Vladimir Putin’s regime, with officials saying work was being undertaken to build the legal case for further sanctions on individuals.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson had pledged to publish the names of Russian elites deemed to have links to the Kremlin (Leon Neal/PA)

Boris Johnson’s administration has faced criticism for failing to target oligarchs and their assets in the same way the European Union has done, with Brussels seizing superyachts owned by wealthy figures in recent days.

Ms Truss said Thursday’s announcement targeting the influential Russians was designed to “ramp up the pressure” on Mr Putin and “choke off funds” for his invasion of Ukraine while accusing those placed on the sanctions list of having the “blood of the Ukrainian people on their hands”.

Why has Roman Abramovich been personally targeted?

The UK Government had deemed that Mr Abramovich has obtained “a financial benefit or other material benefit from Putin and the government of Russia”.

Those benefits include “tax breaks received by companies linked to him, buying and selling shares from and to the state at favourable rates, and the contracts received in the run-up to the Fifa 2018 World Cup”.

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich has had his assets frozen by the UK Government (Rebecca Naden/PA)

He has also been targeted for his associations through “close business relationships and mutual assistance” with already-sanctioned Igor Shuvalov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and general director of Russian gas giant Gazprom.

The UK Foreign Office also concluded that Mr Abramovich “is or has been involved in destabilising Ukraine” via Evraz plc, a steel manufacturing and mining company in which he has “a significant shareholding and… exercises effective control”.

The department said the firm has been involved in “potentially supplying steel to the Russian military which may have been used in the production of tanks”.

How did Roman Abramovich make his wealth?

He sold a 73% stake in Russian oil firm Sibneft to state-owned gas titan Gazprom for £9.87 billion in 2005.

The FCDO said he is one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s to maintain prominence under Mr Putin.

What does this mean for Chelsea FC?

The UK Culture Secretary confirmed that a special licence will be issued to the Premier League club to allow it to continue operating after its owner was sanctioned.

Nadine Dorries said it will allow fixtures to be fulfilled, staff to be paid and existing season ticket holders to attend matches.

Reports have suggested that non-season ticket holders will not be permitted to purchase tickets for games, including away fans.

Chelsea FC will be handed a special licence to continue operating (John Walton/PA)

The club and Mr Abramovich are banned from profiting from club merchandise sales, meaning the west London outfit is likely to be forced to shutter its club shop.

Costs of travel to games cannot exceed £20,000 – a stipulation the first team will have to meet when they travel to Lille in France on Wednesday for their Champions League last 16 tie.

Mr Abramovich announced last week that he was putting the club up for sale, a process that will now be stalled but could still go through provided the Government issues a licence.

The owner would have to prove he would not benefit from the sale to meet conditions of any potential licence, the PA news agency understands.

Will there be any personal implications for Roman Abramovich?

The travel ban means the Russian-Israeli billionaire will not be permitted to enter the UK.

Jets and yachts owned or chartered by Mr Abramovich can be seized, the sanctions say.

Who is Oleg Deripaska?

Oleg Deripaska, 54, is an industrialist who founded aluminium giant Rusal which was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 and added to a British sanction list on Thursday.

The Aughinish alumina plant in Limerick is owned by the Russian billionaire through his company, Rusal.

Rusal employs more than 450 people at Aughinish, which is Europe’s biggest alumina producer.

The fate of Deripaska's multi-million-pound property portfolio in Britain remained unclear after the government said his assets would be frozen.

Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

What do we know about his assets?

FBI agents raided a historic New York townhouse in Greenwich Village and a Washington DC mansion connected to Deripaska in October. 

The tycoon responded on social media by saying nobody was living in those properties.

 "I have to ask: how much of Putin's money was found in those abandoned houses yesterday?" he said, sarcastically inquiring whether investigators had discovered any mouldy jam or vodka in the cupboards. 

Through an LLC in the British Virgin Islands, Deripaska also owns a townhouse, which he bought for $42.5 million in 2008, according to New York court records.

These properties have not been seized by the government, despite sanctions that prevent him from doing business or owning property in the United States.

Deripaska's British Virgin Islands holding company also owns 5 Belgrave Square in London. He bought the mansion in the exclusive Belgravia area for $33 million in 2003, according to multiple media reports.

US sanctions were lifted against Rusal and its parent company En+ in 2019 when Deripaska reduced his stakes below a majority threshold to 44.95%. 

There are still concerns, however, that the Russian oligarch is pulling the strings of his business empire behind the scenes.