Abramovich can’t get back into Britain
Mystery as billionaire oligarch’s new visa is delayed amid diplomatic crisis
CHELSEA football club’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich has been unable to return to Britain after his visa renewal application was delayed without explanation, it was reported yesterday.
The billionaire, said to be close to Vladimir Putin, missed his club’s FA Cup Final victory over Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday after his investor visa expired three weeks ago, sources told Russian news website The Bell.
The news comes amid a spiralling diplomatic crisis between Britain and Russia over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in Salisbury in March.
Mr Abramovich, who split from third wife Dasha Zhukova last summer, is said to have left the UK after the investor visa expired – and cannot come back until it is renewed. He did not testify as expected last week in a London court dispute between two other Russian oligarchs, and was said to be in Switzerland.
Sources close to Mr Abramovich said his request for a new visa had not been denied, but UK authorities were taking longer than usual to renew it without offering any explanation. The Bell said British officials were understood to still be continuing to look into Mr Abramovich’s application.
Tory MP Bob Seely told the Financial Times: ‘Either there is an innocent explanation, or the Government is becoming less sympathetic to Russian oligarchs in the UK. Either way, denying visas to oligarchs is potentially important.’
Following the Skripal poisonings, the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd asked officials to review the basis on which more than 700 wealthy Russians were allowed to settle in the UK. She told MPs the Home Office was looking at how Russians who have secured Tier 1 investor visas in order to live in the UK acquired their wealth. It is not known if Mr Abramovich, who made his fortune in oil and gas in the 1990s, was one of those under investigation. But a source told The Bell that the authorities did not request additional documentation from him.
In January Mr Abramovich’s name appeared on a US Treasury Department list of 210 officials and oligarchs close to President Putin. The list, handed to Congress, is part of a sanctions law designed to punish Russia for interfering in the US election.
Mr Abramovich, who reportedly has a £9.3billion fortune, had not previously figured in any US sanctions-related list, although Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on Western governments in 2014 to seize his property.
A spokesman for the businessman, who bought Chelsea in 2003, said he could not comment because ‘it’s a personal issue’.
Unlike some wealthy Russian investors, Mr Abramovich never took UK residency but has continued to visit on an investor visa. Applicants must have at least £2million to invest in the UK and applications cost £1,623.
He has a £125million mansion in Kensington, but spends a lot of time in Moscow. He also owns four New York townhouses.
Russia’s Sport-Express website cited sources in his entourage as saying he was due to receive a new British visa shortly. Home Office security minister Ben Wallace said: ‘We do not routinely comment on individual cases.’
Ministers have been accused by MPs of risking national security by ‘turning a blind eye’ to Russian ‘dirty money’. President Putin and his allies continue to use the City of London as a base for their ‘corrupt assets’, they said.
The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said combating this should be a ‘major UK foreign policy priority’ and called for further sanctions against ‘Kremlin-connected individuals’.
‘Potentially important’