On the ashes of the Soviet Union, Roman Abramovich, the orphan of Saratov built his fortune. Not very good at studies, he skipped school to join the Red Army. Events rushed and, while Mikhail Gorbachev opened the doors of the market economy, he transformed himself into a small businessman.
→ PORTRAIT. Who is Roman Abramovich, the most famous Russian oligarch?
He buys and sells. All sorts of things. With the collapse of the USSR, the young Roman saw good opportunities looming. In the middle of the 1990s, he bought with Boris Berezovsky, another businessman, the state oil company Sibneft, for 200 million dollars.
Roman Abramovich is spared
Ten years later, in 2000, Vladimir Putin was elected president, an election that he owes in part to the money that his friend Roman Abramovich put into his campaign. In 2005, the latter resold Sibneft to the Russian government for… 11.9 billion dollars!
From 2001 to 2008, he was elected deputy in Chukotka, the region in the extreme north-east of the country, before being appointed governor a few months later. And curiously, while Putin sets out to clean up the oligarchs who got rich on the ruins of the Soviet Union, Roman Abramovich is spared.
The man is not interested in politics – or has he realized that it is better to stay away from it? A billionaire, in 2003 he bought the coveted British football club Chelsea FC. All-London welcomes the Russian oligarchs investing their fortune in the United Kingdom. Money has no smell and can buy everything. The fortune of Roman Abramovich is estimated at… 13 billion dollars.
Like other wealthy compatriots, he invests in “Londongrad” this triangle formed by the districts of Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia. The British capital is not careful about the origin of the funds. Abramovich is not only rich, he is building the image of a philanthropist. He was interested in culture, founded a cultural center in Moscow with his third wife, sat on the board of directors of the Bolshoi Theater and forged a reputation as an art collector in Europe and the United States.
Boris Johnson’s government is dithering.
Was he thinking of escaping the ax of sanctions in this way? In fact, his name is not in the very first list of oligarchs targeted by them. Boris Johnson’s government is dithering. It was not until March 10 that the British authorities added him, under pressure from Westminster MPs who accused him of having “obvious connections” with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
With sudden virtuous tones, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says: “The oligarchs have no place in our economy or our society. Because of their ties to Putin, they are complicit in his attack (against Ukraine, editor’s note). Their hands are covered with the blood of Ukrainians. »
Although he has invested a large part of his fortune in England, Roman Abramovich does not have British nationality. He must leave the United Kingdom, leaving behind him the Chelsea club that he can no longer sell.
→ THE FACTS. Ukraine: Russian Premier League oligarchs forced to exodus
The oligarch was right to stay away from politics, but he paid the price in 2018 when he asked London to renew his businessman’s visa. This is the moment chosen by Vladimir Putin to send a commando of three Russian spies to poison the ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.
Prime Minister Theresa May strikes hard and imposes the first sanctions on Russia. The oligarch, who needs a passport to pursue his activities, then turns to Israel. As a Russian Jew, the owner of the Chelsea football club obtained Israeli nationality on May 28, 2018 under the Law of Return, to which any child or grandchild of a Jew who requests it is entitled.
The quest for a passport
Israel’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Gary Koren, welcomes this: “He is a successful businessman and our main hope is that part of his fortune will be invested in our economy. » Never mind, Roman Abramovich takes out his checkbook, finances the University of Tel Aviv, the Sheba medical center, an organization of Israeli settlers, etc.
Generosity repaid. At the start of the war, when Moscow was massing its troops on the border with Ukraine, reports the New York Times, the American ambassador to Israel receives a letter signed by various Israeli personalities asking that the Russian oligarch, as a benefactor, be spared sanctions. Shortly after, Abramovich and the Yad Vashem memorial announced a partnership – since suspended – with, in the end, a contribution from him of 10 million dollars, again according to the American daily.
In his quest for a passport, Roman Abramovich pulls out all the stops. In 2021, it is also turning to Portugal which, in 2015, passed the reparations law. It allows all the descendants of Sephardic Jews, persecuted and expelled at the end of the 15th century, to obtain Portuguese nationality on the condition of providing the documents to prove it.
Under this naturalization law, the Russian goes to the Israelite community of Porto, which provides him with a certificate attesting to his Jewish origins. This document is submitted to the Institute of Registers and Notaries (IRN), and the procedure validated by the Ministry of Justice.
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In April 2021, he obtains the precious sesame which allows him to settle in Europe. But here again fate seems to be hounding the billionaire. Last January, unrelated to the war in Ukraine, Portuguese justice opened an investigation into Abramovich’s naturalization procedure. She suspects the oligarch of having taken out his checkbook again. After several searches, the rabbi of the Porto community, Daniel Litvak, was arrested as he was preparing to return to Israel.
The doors closed one after another. According to some sources, Roman Abramovich left the United Kingdom for Russia via Turkey, after a stopover in Israel.