Increasingly cornered, the Russian oligarchs are beginning to look for alternatives to face the harsh sanctions of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU). Roman Abramovichone of the richest men on the planet, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after being last seen at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.
As stated by The Times of Israelthe private plane Gulfstream G650owned by the owner of Chelsea, landed in the Russian capital on Tuesday morning, after a brief stopover in Turkey.
The pilot had to take an alternate route to avoid both southeastern Ukraine, where there is heavy fighting over the Russian invasion, and the northern Caucasus. This way, The luxurious jet flew over Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan to finally land on Russian soil.
The Russian tycoon was sanctioned by the United Kingdom last week for his close ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime, which prevented him from accessing his London home. Despite having an Israeli passport, he was also unable to stay in that country.
Israel announced in the last hours that it would not allow the Russian oligarchs to circumvent the sanctions, in a decision that was celebrated and recognized by the British Foreign Ministry.
“Welcome news from Yair Lapid that Israel will support sanctions against Russia. We are working with our allies and partners to put pressure on Putin and challenge his unprovoked and unnecessary attack on Ukraine,” UK Foreign Office Secretary Liz Truss said on social media.
“Israel will not be a way to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other Western countries”said Lapid, the Israeli foreign minister.
Until now, Israel has not joined the sanctions applied by the West against the Russian oligarchs, with the aim of assuming the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine, since it maintains good relations with both countries.
Nevertheless, airport authorities are instructed not to allow the long-term parking of the private planes of the US-sanctioned Russians. As reported by the channel 12the luxurious private planes, owned by men close to Putin, cannot be more than 48 hours on Israeli soil.
Abramovich, for his part, obtained Israeli citizenship in 2018 after the UK refused to renew his visa, amid growing diplomatic clashes between London and Moscow.
Two days before the invasion of Ukraine, he made a millionaire donation to the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem, but the institution decided to forgo the money and announced that it was cutting ties with the tycoon two weeks later.
Despite not having been able to renew his British visa, Abramovich remained the owner of the English soccer club Chelsea these years. But he tried to sell it at the end of last month, since he knew that he would enter the list of sanctioned oligarchs.
.responsive { width: 100%; height: auto; }
(Marcelo Regalado – Infobae)
Last week British authorities, who estimate his net worth at 9.4 billion pounds (11.1 billion euros, 12.2 billion dollars)frozen their assets.
In addition to asset blocking, Abramovich will not be able to enter British territory and will be prohibited from doing any type of business on English soil due to his “close relationship” with the Russian Putin regime.
In this way, his intentions to get rid of the Blues have been abruptly paralyzed and the future of the club is unknown despite the fact that the Russian tycoon has asked the Raine Group to tell those who apply to acquire the institution who present offers to make the purchase effective. It is estimated that the estimated value of Chelsea for its sale is around 4,000 million dollars.
Also, the Premier League announced over the weekend the official dismissal of the tycoon as the main face of the club. “Following the imposition of sanctions by the UK Government, the Premier League Board has disqualified Roman Abramovich as director of Chelsea Football Club.”
The European Union adopted on Tuesday the fourth package of sectoral and individual sanctions for the Russian military aggression against Ukraineintended to deal “another big blow” to the economic and logistical base of the Kremlin’s war machine.
The new package, promoted by European leaders at their informal meeting on March 10 and 11 in Versailles (France) and approved on Monday by the ambassadors of the Twenty-seven before the European institutions, includes commercial and financial restrictions and incorporates more oligarchs into the community club blacklist.
this package expands the list of people and entities sanctionedin a new step against the circle closest to the Kremlin, including oligarchs like Abramovich.
Keep reading:
Roman Abramovich, increasingly cornered: the last photo, more sanctions and a scam of 2.7 billion dollars
The Ukrainian delegate affirmed that there are “deep contradictions” in the negotiations with Russia
Russian invasion of Ukraine LIVE: evacuated more than 20,000 people from Mariupol
Source-www.infobae.com