His empire falters after the invasion of Ukraine due to his alleged links to the Kremlin
Abramovich.. From a poor in the Russian north to a billionaire on the Chelsea presidency
From a poor background in Russia's frozen north, Roman Abramovich rose to become a billionaire and footballing influencer, but his empire falters after the invasion of Ukraine due to his alleged connections to the Kremlin.
His decision on Saturday to hand over Chelsea's management to the club's charitable foundation hinted at the 55-year-old's fear of freezing his assets in Britain, after the government imposed sanctions on a "targeted list" of wealthy people following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich was a shadow businessman after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, who seized the lucrative assets of the Soviet state at rock-bottom prices.
In Abramovich's case, his 1996 acquisition of a major stake in Sibneft's $100 million investment sent him skyrocketing.
The businessman, who was born in Saratov in the south of the country and studied mathematics in Moscow, first made money from a rubber toy manufacturer, having been raised an orphan in a Jewish family in the harsh north.
His fortune is currently 13.6 billion US dollars, according to the latest figures of the specialist Forbes magazine, and he owns stakes in the steel giants "Evraz" and "Norilsk Nickel".
Chelsea turned into a European force in football, and the West London club under his leadership won the European Champions League twice, most recently last season.
From petroleum to aluminum to cars, his fortune rose rapidly.
He financed Boris Yeltsin's campaign before he entered the Kremlin, where businessmen forged close ties with the president's inner circle.
His properties include a 15-bedroom mansion in posh Kensington, and he owns one of the world's largest yachts, the Eclipse, 162 metres.
The newest yacht in his luxury fleet is the slimmer Solaris.
It is reported that the two yachts are equipped with an anti-missile defense system.
In September 2005, he secured a massive cash boost with the $13 billion sale of Sibneft to state-owned gas giant Gazprom, allowing President Vladimir Putin to regain control of strategic assets.
Supporting Characters
Unlike oligarchs who tried to stand up to the Kremlin, like his former business partner Boris Berezovsky, Abramovich stayed out of the political spotlight.
Putin has rewarded him for his loyalty by giving him rule in the far eastern state of Chukotoka, according to analysts.
After Berezovsky's feud with the Putin regime, Abramovich seized his stake in the largest local television network in 2001. Berezovsky died in mysterious circumstances near London in 2013.
A keen eye on his reputation, Abramovich received an apology last year after suing a British author and publisher of a book on the rise of the inner circle. From Putin accused the latter of using unclean money to expand his country's influence abroad.
The book "Putin's People" included allegations by his former partner, Sergei Bezgachev, that Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 on the orders of the president, in an attempt to boost Russian influence.
British Liberal Democrat MP Leila Moran used her parliamentary privilege last week to name Abramovich as one of 35 "supporting figures" for Putin who should be punished by Britain.
Father of seven, separated in 2017 from his partner Daria Zhukova, founder of the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Moscow.
On Saturday, his daughter Sofia distanced herself from Russian events, writing on Instagram that "the biggest and most successful Kremlin propaganda lie is that most Russians stand with Putin."
She shared the phrase "Russia wants war with Ukraine," replacing Russia with Putin.
Her father's work visa to enter Britain expired in 2018, following a gas attack in Salisbury attributed to Russian agents.
He obtained an Israeli passport that allows him to travel freely to Britain, despite the decline in the pace of his visits to Chelsea matches in recent years.
He also obtained a Portuguese passport, but the latter's authorities are investigating the circumstances of his naturalization.
Abramovich may find himself an international pariah, and in a rare media interview with the Observer in December 2006, he disagreed with the idea that money could buy happiness, saying that instead it might buy "some independence".
"A Russian proverb says: Never say that you will not be imprisoned and you will not be poor," he added.
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