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Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich barred from Britain over support for Putin’s regime
Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich is reported to have been effectively barred from living in Britain ever again.
The billionaire has not been seen at his Premier League football club’s south-west London home, Stamford Bridge, for months.
He withdrew his application for a British Tier 1 investor visa in 2018, after reported delays in his application following criticism of Russian oligarchs in the wake of the Salisbury poisonings.
According to report, senior security sources now say it is unlikely that the 55-year-old will ever be allowed to live in Britain again.
Immigration officials are reportedly under instructions to make it impossible for Mr Abramovich – who owns a £125million mansion near Kensington Palace – to base himself in the UK.
His case is said to be being handled by the Home Office’s ‘Special Cases Unit’.
It comes after Mr Abramovich was named by MPs on Tuesday as being one of 35 oligarchs identified by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as one of the ‘key enablers’ of the ‘kleptocracy’ run by the country’s president Vladimir Putin.
He vehemently denies he is close to the Kremlin or has done anything that would merit sanctions being imposed against him – as Britain looked to impose sanctions on Russia amid rising tensions with Ukraine.
In 2018 Mr Abramovich became an Israeli citizen, allowing him to enter for Britain for up to six months.
He used his Israeli passport last October to make a short trip to London.
However, a senior source told The Sun that any attempt by the oligarch to apply for a permanent visa would ‘almost certainly be rejected’.