The UK government announced a fresh wave of sanctions against Russian oligarchs yesterday.
Most notable was the news that Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned. As he has had his UK assets seized, this has a direct impact on the club, who cannot purchase or sell players, nor sell new tickets.
Chelsea players will still be paid their wages but the club cannot gain any income from ticket sales and only season ticket-holders can attend the rest of the season's home games.
Alongside Abramovich were six businessmen with ties to Russia and Vladimir Putin.
The government hopes that targeting their UK assets will ramp up the economic pressure on Putin and his cronies. Russia is currently waging a devastating war in Ukraine in which hundreds of people have been killed, civilians targeted by Russian bombs in major cities and over two million people estimated to have fled the country.
There are plenty of oligarchs with close ties to the UK as well, so who are they and have they been sanctioned?
Who is Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich?
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Roman Abramovich is a billionaire known for making his money through oil.
When the Soviet Union broke up in the 1990s, it allowed already successful businessmen to buy state assets on the cheap and sell them for huge profits on the global markets.
Abramovich is known to have ties to Putin, though he has denied this. A judge in a 2012 High Court hearing said the Chelsea owner had "very good relations" with and "privileged access to" the Russian president.
He became more famous in the UK after he purchased Chelsea in 2003, leading the club to unprecedented success on the pitch.
Upon announcing the sanctions against him, the government said: "His net worth is an estimated £9.4 billion. He is one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s to maintain prominence under Putin. None of our allies have yet sanctioned Abramovich."
Its justification behind the sanctions were his ties to Putin and stakes in steel giant Evraz, which is claimed to provide mental used to build Russian tanks.
He owns a house in Kensington's 'billionaires row' as well as two impressive London penthouse apartments.
Who are the oligarchs in the UK?
There are a number of oligarchs in the UK with ties to Russia.
Mikhail Fridman
Mikhail Fridman purchased Athlone House in North London for £65 million in 2016. The same house is now believed to be worth roughly £90 million.
He said: "I do not make political statements, I am a businessman with responsibilities to my many thousands of employees in Russia and Ukraine. I am convinced, however, that war can never be the answer. This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years."
Known for his role with Alfa Bank, he resigned when the EU announced sanctions against him.
Petr Aven
Like Fridman, oligarch Petr Aven resigned from Alfa Bank in the wake of EU sanctions.
Aven founded investment firm LetterOne in 2013 with Fridman in 2013 and the two are known to be close business associates.
We know that ties to the Kremlin are vital – or have been – for the success of many Russian businesses, and Aven once said "it was crucial to be able to be friends" after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He said: "In the early 90s, it was crucial to be able to be friends, to build relationships. The role of informal relationships is very important in Russia in general, it definitely means much more here than in the West."
Aven's £3.6 billion allowed him to buy Palladian Ingliston House in Virginia Water, Surrey, listed in 2015 as being worth just under £16 million.
Igor Shugalov
Igor Shugalov, geographically speaking, lives at the heart of the UK government.
Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny claims that Russia's former First Deputy Prime Minister lives in Whitehall Court, mere minutes walk from Parliament
He is said to fly his wife's corgis around on private jets. The dogs are named Andvol Pinkerton, Andvol Tsesarevich, Andvol Ostap Bender, Andvol Hugo Boss, Andvol I'm Your Idol and Fox Pack Gabby Joy of Elves.
He once said: "If a Russian feels any foreign pressure, he will never give up his leader. Never."
His net worth is not known.
Oleg Deripaska
Oleg Deripaska is a former business associate of Abramovich and earned his wealth through the industrial group Basic Element.
He was already sanctioned by the US government back in 2018 and called for an end to the war when it broke out, but did not directly condemn Vladimir Putin. He has now been added the list of sanctioned UK businessmen.
He said on Telegram: "Peace is very important! Negotiations must begin as soon as possible!"
Despite nearly losing all of his wealth in the wake of the financial crash in 2008 – he was the richest man in Russia before this – Deripaska now has a net worth of £1.9 billion and also has stakes in En+ Group, which owns UC Rusal. UC Rusal is a major aluminium producer.
Alisher Usmanov
Alisher Usmanov is the former owner of Arsenal FC and recently had ties with Everton, before they were cut.
His assets have been frozen by the European Union and he has also had his superyacht seized.
The Uzbek-born Russian has a net worth estimated to be over £10 billion and this enormous fortune meant he could purchase a 72-room Tudor mansion in Surrey without even a nervous glance at his bank account.
Andrey Guryev
With a net worth of £3.82 billion, Andrey Guryev can more than afford his North London mansion.
The property is sometimes referred to as London's second-biggest family home, behind the Queen's Buckingham Palace.
The New York Post reported that he bought the 25-bedroom property through the family of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Civil war in Syria has raised several concerns about human rights violations in the country and the regime is known for its support from Russia.
He made a vast amount of his money through PhosAgro, a fertiliser company – not bad for a former communist committee leader in Moscow.
Rinat Akhmetov
Rinat Akhmetov is worth around £5.29 billion, but is Ukrainian, not Russian.
It is reported that there are 'years of bad blood' between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Akhmetov, and the latter has been accused of treason, said to have his business interests more in line with Russia than Ukraine.
In November, Zelensky accused the billionaire of trying to organise a coup against him.
The president said: "It’s not only intelligence that we have, but it’s also audio intercepts, where representatives of Ukraine, so to speak, discuss with representatives of Russia Rinat Akhmetov’s participation in the coup in Ukraine."
In response, Akhmetov said: "I am outraged by the spread of this lie, no matter what the president’s motives are."
His London home is the famous One Hyde Park, which was known as the 'world's most expensive flat' bought for £136 million in 2011.
The Shakhtar Donetsk was barred from selling the flat in 2018 when a Cypriot court froze £580 million of his assets.
Vladimir Doronin
Fellow One Hyde Park resident at one time was Russian businessman Vladimir Doronin.
The 59-year-old owner and chairman of Aman Resorts has an estimated net worth of £760 million.
Doronin's ex-girlfriend is model Naomi Campbell and they dated between 2008 and 2013. The relationship did not end well, with the Russian counter-suing Campbell after she brought legal action against him for to get "some of her things back that are in his possession".
Doronin's denouncement of the war was far stronger than the condemnation of several other Russian billionaires.
"I denounce the aggression of Russia on Ukraine and fervently wish for peace," he said in response to protests outside his New York hotel.
"If an owner of such a large corporation cannot answer such a simple question, that speaks for itself."
Dmytro Firtash
One of the most controversial names on the list is Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch wanted by the US on charges of bribery.
He set up a partnership with Gazprom in 2004 to export gas from Asia into Ukraine.
Due to Gazprom being a state-owned Russian company, speculation arose about Firtash's relationship with Putin.
Ukraine put sanctions on the businessman in 2021 for selling titanium products allegedly used by the Russian military.
He is best known in the UK for purchasing the disused Brompton underground station, formerly a Second World War command centre.
Estimates put his net worth at somewhere between £750,000,000 and £2.3 billion. He is currently in Vienna fighting his extradition charges.
A statement upon the announcement of Putin's invasion from Firtash's lawyer read: "Mr. Firtash is taking every step he can to do whatever possible to protect Ukrainian sovereignty, Ukraine's democratically elected government, and his fellow Ukrainian citizens."
The Rotenbergs
Igor and Boris Rotenberg were two of the first batch of oligarch names to be sanctioned by the UK over Putin's actions in Russia.
Forbes estimates that Boris' net worth is around £880 million, while his nephew Igor is said to be worth around £840 million.
Boris' brother Arkady has been on a list of sanctions by the US since 2014, in response to Russia's invasion of Crimea.
A bitter divorce battle between Arkady and ex-wife Natalia revealed him to be the owner of a huge manor in the Surrey village of Windlesham, bought for £27million in 2012.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that Boris' son Roman lived in London's Belgravia.
Vladimir Yakunin
Vladimir Yakunin is believed to have been a close business partner of Putin since the 1990s and was once a member of the KGB like the Russian president.
His son Andrey is said to own a mansion in Hampstead bought for £4.5 million, as well as a former property in St John's Wood sold last year for £18 million.
Andrey claims not to have any business ties with his father.
Kirill Shamalov
Kirill Shamalov is the former son-in-law of Putin and describes Russia's youngest billionaire.
It is reported that Michael Gove is drawing up plans to seize his UK properties, hurting his net worth of £1 billion.
Shamalov was named alongside the first wave of sanctioned oligarchs.
The following businessman have also been sanctioned and have a property base in the UK, but the extent of their portfolio is not as well known:
- Gennady Timchenko
- Elena Alexsanderovna Georgieva
- Yury Slyusar
- Pyotr Fradkov
- Denis Bortnikov
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