The billionaire proprietor of the English Premier League side have become the highest profile oligarch but sanctioned with the aid of any Western u . S ., following Russia's invasion of Ukraine past due last month.
Abramovich, 55, changed into considered one of seven greater oligarchs slapped with new British regulations over the invasion, along with his former enterprise associate Oleg Deripaska.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of delaying motion in opposition to wealthy Russians, and turning a blind eye to Russian money that has coursed through London for the reason that fall apart of the Soviet Union.
He called the sanctions "the present day step inside the UK's unwavering assist for the Ukrainian people".
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stated the "oligarchs and kleptocrats" focused had been "complicit" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression.
"The blood of the Ukrainian human beings is on their hands. They must dangle their heads in disgrace," she said.
Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, turning the perennial additionally-rans into serial winners with unlimited switch budget after he became rich on the chaotic privatisation of kingdom assets in Nineteen Nineties Russia.
He has denied claims that he bought the London club on Putin's orders, to increase Russia's influence abroad inside the early 2000s.
Others sanctioned Thursday have been Rosneft leader govt Igor Sechin, whom the British government described as Putin's "proper-hand guy", and the head of electricity large Gazprom, Alexei Miller.