Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich hit by UK sanctions

Football Club's Russian owner Roman Abramovich was on Thursday hit with a UK assets freeze and travel ban, throwing his plans to sell the European and world club champions into disarray. The billionaire owner of the English Premier League side became the highest profile oligarch yet sanctioned by any Western country, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine late last month. Abramovich, 55, was one of seven more oligarchs slapped with new British restrictions over the invasion, including his former business partner Oleg Deripaska.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of delaying action against wealthy Russians, and turning a blind eye to Russian money that has coursed through London since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He called the sanctions "the latest step in the UK's unwavering support for the Ukrainian people" while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said they showed that "oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy and society". "With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression.

The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame," she added. Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, turning the perennial also-rans into serial winners with unlimited transfer funds after he became rich on the chaotic privatisation of state assets in 1990s Russia.

He has denied claims that he bought the London club on President Vladimir Putin's orders, to expand Russia's influence abroad in the early 2000s. Others sanctioned Thursday were Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, whom the British government described as Putin's "right-hand man", and the head of energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller. Also on the list were VTB bank chairman Andrey Kostin, Transneft president