Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich banned from Great Britain

Roman Abramovich has effectively been banned from living in Great Britain. The Russian owner has been living in London for many years now but will apparently not be allowed to live there anymore due to the intervention of the Russian forces into Ukraine. The Chelsea football club owner withdrew his application for a British Tier 1 investor visa in 2018, after reported delays in his application following criticism of Russian oligarchs in the wake of the Salisbury poisonings.

Immigration officials are trying to make it impossible for the Russian to come back to his massive 125-million-pound mansion which is situated near Kensington Palace. Such stringent action is being taken by the Great Britain officials as the Russian has been recently named as one of the MPs on Tuesday as being one of 35 oligarchs identified by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as one of the ‘key enablers’ of the ‘kleptocracy’ run by the country’s president Vladimir Putin. 

In the interest of living in the UK, Roman Abramovich had earlier changed his nationality and became an Israeli citizen which had allowed him to live in Britain for six months. However, any attempts by him to obtain a permanent visa will most definitely be denied due to the rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

There was also a discussion about this situation in the House of Commons as foreign Secretary Liz Truss refused to say whether or not Mr. Abramovich would be targeted with sanctions, but suggested that others would be.   

She said ‘We have a long list of those complicit in the actions of the Russian leadership, should Russia refuse to pull back its troops, we can keep turning up the heat, targeting more banks, elites, and companies of significance. This is about inflicting pain on Putin and degrading the Russian economic system over time, targeting people that are close to Putin. What we have to do is make it as painful as possible.’ 

It will be seen as to what happens between the rising tensions of Russia and Ukraine. Most of the nations have been looking at this situation and will be hoping that the tensions arising in the countries stop soon.