Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich among seven Russian oligarchs targeted by Britain

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<strong>Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday announced a full asset freeze and travel ban on seven of Russia's wealthiest and most influential oligarchs, whose business empires, wealth and connections are closely associated with the Kremlin.</strong></p>
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The United Kingdom said that the move is a part of its efforts to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and those around him. The oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15bn – will have their assets in the UK frozen, banned from travelling to the country and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.<br />
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According to the UK Foreign Ministry, those newly-sanctioned by the UK include Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, worth more than £9 billion; leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska worth £2 billion, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.<br />
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The Russia-based oligarchs placed under sanction include:  <br />
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– Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel<br />
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– Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group<br />
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– Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft<br />
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– Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank<br />
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– Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom<br />
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– Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft<br />
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– Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya<br />
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"There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.<br />
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The UK has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries since Russia's military operation in Ukraine, with over 500 of them now covered by the UK's sanctions list.<br />
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Given the significant impact that today’s sanctions would have on Chelsea football club and the potential knock on effects of this, the Johnson government has on Thursday morning published a licence which authorises a number of football-related activities to continue at Chelsea.<br />
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This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football related activity which will in turn protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs.<br />
"This licence will only allow certain explicitly named actions to ensure the designated individual is not able to circumvent UK sanctions. The licence will be kept under constant review and we will work closely with the football authorities," said the UK government.</p>
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