Roman Abramovich's British visa was not extended

As The Bell learned, a few weeks ago Roman Abramovich’s British investor visa expired, and the businessman was not issued a new one. Yesterday, because of this, Abramovich was unable to attend the FA Cup final, where his Chelsea defeated Manchester United. An acquaintance of his and two sources close to him told The Bell that the businessman had lost his British visa.

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Details

• Two of The Bell's interlocutors say that Abramovich's previous visa expired more than three weeks ago, and he was not issued a new one. Another source close to the businessman claims that there was no official refusal to issue a new visa; the British authorities continue to review Abramovich’s documents.
• Abramovich's representative did not comment on this information. Representatives from the Home Office, the UK government department responsible for immigration control, declined to comment.
• According to the ADS-B Exchange database (which aggregates data from aircraft transponders around the world), the last time Abramovich’s personal Boeing 767 was in London was on April 1.
• Roman Abramovich bought the Chelsea football club in 2003 and has since spent a lot of time in the UK, but he did not have a residence permit. In February, Swiss mediareported that the billionaire was trying to obtain a residence permit in this country, and he submitted his first application back in 2016, but withdrew it the following summer for unknown reasons. Abramovich tried through the court to oblige the media to remove this information, but was refused .
• In January 2018, the British tabloid The Sun reported that Abramovich received a residence permit on the island of Jersey, which has its own program for providing residence permits to wealthy foreigners. They must guarantee the payment of at least £145,000 in taxes a year to the island's treasury. Jersey belongs to the British Crown, but is not formally part of the UK, and a Jersey residence permit in Britain is not valid. A source close to the businessman confirms that Abramovich has permission to obtain a residence permit from the Jersey authorities, but he did not use it.

Signals

• At the end of March, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that the country's authorities would check hundreds of visas issued to wealthy Russians. At the same time, it was reported that 700 Russians who received investment visas (Tier 1 visa) in 2008-2015 would be subject to verification (the system was later reformed and the issuance of investment visas to foreigners was sharply reduced). Whether Abramovich came under such scrutiny is unknown. A source close to him claims that no additional documents were requested from him.
• An investment visa is a popular way to move to the UK. To get it, you need to invest at least £2 million in the British economy (for example, in a business in the country, securities or local real estate). This guarantees a visa for 3 years and 4 months, after which it can be extended. Five years after receiving the visa, you can count on a residence permit.

Context

• The British authorities decided to check the visas of wealthy Russians after the scandal of the poisoning in Salisbury of ex-GRU colonel and Mi-6 agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
• UK authorities blamed Russia for the attack. The first measure was the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country (this action was later joined by the United States and EU countries).
• In mid-March, it became clear that large Russian businesses could also suffer from the conflict - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson then said that the country would hold them accountable.

Quote: “People want to see law enforcement prosecute very wealthy people who are directly connected to Vladimir Putin, […] people whose wealth may have stemmed from their relationship with him,” Johnson said . - We will come for their money. We are already doing this."

• At the same time, Johnson said that investigations were already underway against “a wide range of individuals,” but did not name names. Who exactly the British authorities are checking is still unknown.
• The UK authorities also warned that recently adopted anti-money laundering laws could be used against Russians, including Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO) - warrants for the seizure of foreign property of unknown origin, the owner of which is obliged to prove the purity of his assets (we wrote about this details here ).

What Abramovich owns in Britain

Last week, the British The Sunday Times once again included Roman Abramovich in the list of the richest residents of Great Britain - with a fortune of £9.3 billion ($12.5 billion), he took 13th place on the list.

• Abramovich owns more assets in Britain than any other Russian - except perhaps Alisher Usmanov. His most valuable asset is the Chelsea football club (Forbes estimates it at $1.8 billion), which won the FA Cup against Manchester United on Saturday. In addition, the metallurgical holding Evraz is registered in London, in which the billionaire owns 30.76% of shares (market value as of May 16: $2.91 billion).
• The billionaire also owns real estate in the UK worth several hundred million dollars. The most famous of the buildings is a mansion on Kensington Palace Gardens, which is called “billionaires' street.” Abramovich bought the building from the Russian embassy for about $125 million at the current exchange rate.

Read more about the problems of Russian businessmen with visas and obtaining citizenship in other countries in The Bell's daily newsletter. Subscribe here .

What's in it for me?

If the British authorities refuse a visa to Roman Abramovich, who has invested billions of dollars in this country, this will be a very significant measure. For wealthy Russians, the UK and its offshore companies have been a refuge for many years - they hid here from persecution by Russian government agencies, they moved here to pay taxes - especially after the Russian authorities began to fight for the repatriation of large capitals. Now it will not be easy for Russians who are counting on long-term visas or residence permits on the island.

Irina Malkova, Petr Mironenko