Chelsea Owner and Russia’s 11th wealthiest man Roman Abramovich is still having trouble regaining access to the United Kingdom. Abramovich has seen a very lengthy delay over the renewal processing of his UK VISA, which expired in April. It is believed that this is the reason he did not attend his club’s 1-0 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup Final.
It was reported Monday that Abramovich flew to Tel Aviv, Israel, one of the many places that he owns property, and sought Israeli citizenship. Under the nation’s Law of Return, Jews living abroad have eligibility to gain Israeli citizenship.
Israel’s interior ministry has confirmed the offer of citizenship, as Abramovich was indeed found to be eligible. While becoming an Israeli citizen would then make Abramovich that nation’s wealthiest man, it still would not grant him access to to work in the UK, where his extremely valuable football club is located.
According to official word from the 10 Downing Street office of the Prime Minister, Abramovich will be allowed to visit the country without a visa for up to six months at a time, due to his Israeli passport, but he will not able to work in the country.
The Guardian has much more as they quote P.M. Theresa May’s spokesman:
While stressing he could not comment on individual cases, the spokesman outlined the general situation, saying: “Those with Israeli passports are non-visa nationals, which means they do not need a visa to come to the UK as a visitor for a maximum period of six months.”
He added: “Israelis are required to obtain a visa if they want to live, work or study in the UK.”
While it is policy of UK passport officials not to publicly comment on individual cases, it stands to reason that the entry issues Abramovich faces are at least partly due to increasingly strained British-Russian relations. The poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March, plus Britain accusing Moscow of being behind the incident, has sparked a diplomatic crisis.
Abramovich’s very close ties to President Vladimir Putin have placed him under additional scrutiny. His previous tier-1 visa, which allows business people who invest more than £2 million in the British economy a stay of 40 months, was granted before tighter regulations got enacted in 2015. It’s not just Great Britain who are now putting the clamps down on Russia’s elite of the elite.
The United States government made a push for sanctions against the Russian oligarchs who are tight with Putin. Abramovich made the U.S. government’s “Putin list” of oligarchs that were put on notice this past winter, but he was not among those who were later sanctioned.
Roman Abramovich, as usual, has not publicly commented on any portion of the VISA renewal process. One of the world’s wealthiest men, with the very high profile position of being the owner of a giant football club, he still remains secretive and publicity shy; thus making his actions all the more intriguing.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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