Roman Abramovich hastily selling UK properties, MP claims
An MP has claimed that the Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, is hastily selling UK properties to avoid potential financial sanctions.
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and head of the parliamentary standards committee, said the government was moving too slowly on imposing sanctions on those with alleged links to Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He told the Commons on Tuesday: “I think he [Abramovich] is terrified of being sanctioned, which is why he’s already going to sell his home tomorrow, and sell another flat as well. My anxiety is that we’re taking too long about these things.”
Announcing a package of measures in the wake of the conflict, the Foreign Office said “120 businesses and oligarchs” would be hit by swingeing new financial restrictions. Only a handful of individuals have so far been targeted, however.
Bryant used parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from legal proceedings, to suggest that Abramovich was taking steps to avoid his assets being frozen. The 55-year-old is among Russia’s – and Britain’s – richest people and is believed to be close to Putin.
Over the weekend, the oligarch announced he would hand over the “stewardship and care” of Chelsea football club to the trustees of its charitable foundation, though the legal implications of that move remain unclear. On Monday, his spokesperson said he was “trying to help” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict after being “contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution”.
The following day a number of reporters arrived outside Abramovich’s 15-bedroom mansion on Kensington Palace Gardens in west London following rumours that a potential buyer was due for a lunchtime tour of the
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