JUST IN: UK Imposes Travel Ban, Freezes Assets Of Chelsea Owner, 6 Other Wealthy Russians Worth £15bn

The government of the United Kingdom, on Thursday announced full asset freeze and travel ban on seven wealthy business and most influential personalities from Russia including the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich.

The UK claimed in a statement that the sanctioned seven oligarchs have a collective net worth of around £15bn, with their assets in the UK.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss disclosed this in a press release published on the UK government’s website,adding that their assets are frozen in retaliation of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

“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. A further group of Russia-based oligarchs close to Putin have also been placed under sanction. Those sanctioned today are:

“Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel
Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group
Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft
Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank
Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom
Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft
Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya,” the statement partly read.

Truss said the move is geared towards isolating close associates of the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame.
“Our support for Ukraine will not waver,” Truss said.

Speaking in the same view, UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said the latest sanctions were part of UK’s support for the people and government of Ukraine.

“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,” he said.