A private plane for Roman Abramovich - the Russian businessman and owner of Chelsea FC - arrived in Istanbul from Israel, on a trip aimed at protecting one of his properties, worth about half a billion euros.
Abramovich was among 7 Russian billionaires added to Britain's sanctions list last week, in an attempt to isolate President Vladimir Putin over Russia's war on Ukraine.
The Russian businessman, who also holds citizenships of Israel and Portugal, denies that he is close to Putin.
In his first appearance since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, pictures circulated - yesterday, Monday - showed the owner of the Chelsea club sitting in the VIP lounge at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was waiting for his private Gulfstream plane the size of Large for businessmen, according to information from Flightradar24, a website that specializes in tracking flights.
According to information reported by the French RMC website, Abramovich's trip to Turkey came with the aim of protecting one of his most valuable possessions from the fires of sanctions, and the matter concerns his luxury yacht "Solaris", estimated at 545 million euros, after booking many yachts. Owned by wealthy Russians in the past few days.
The fortune of the Russian billionaire is estimated at more than 12 billion euros, and he acquired Chelsea in 2003 and led him to the coronation of many titles before he had to offer it for sale with mounting pressure on him due to Russia’s war on Ukraine, but the sale process was suspended by a decision of the British government, which imposed sanctions on Abramovich and allowed the London club to continue operating under a temporary license.