Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has not had his UK ‘Investor’ visa renewed in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain last month. And the hand of Trump can be seen in the shadows.
Abramovich, who has close links with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, is one of 700 Putin allies who received Tier 1 UK Investor Visas over the last decade and is not the only one to run into trouble come renewal time.
Britain, it seems, is sending a clear signal to Putin and his pals, who are now likely to start pressuring the Russian leader for answers and resolution. This is bound to cause splits, rifts and conflict high up in Russian power circles.
There is no better example of what is likely to create tension among the oligarchs, especially those who have been investing their ill-gotten gains in the West, London in particular.
Already the billionaire owners of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, have held a closed meeting with American foreign policy experts and have been critical of the Russian government’s recent actions.
They are desperate to repair their relationship with the U.S. after making the mistake of becoming involved in the scandalous Trump Russia dossier.
They probably thought it was a good idea at the time but now the group’s owners are suing the dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, in an late attempt to curry favor. They do not want to be on Trump’s radar.
Abramovich’s troubles should be a warning to other businessmen who followed his path of selling assets in Russia and reinvesting those profits in the West over recent years.
Each of them is now, at least in theory, at risk of becoming the next target of personal sanctions, like those which have already pushed billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s business to the brink of bankruptcy.
So there is now a clear sign that President Trump is beginning to tighten the screw on the scurrilous and untamed Russian leadership and its wealthy partners.
Abramovich is now, reportedly, seeking Israeli citizenship after Britain refused to extend his visa, according to an Israeli newspaper who claimed he landed in Israel on Thursday to finalise his aliyah.
However U.S. President Trump’s close, and recently cemented, ties with Israel, and in particular with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, may provide another dead end for fleeing Putin allies.
Indeed, they may even be forced back into Russia and that is something they ALL want to avoid.
In Israel Abramovich and others will have to explain the source of their massive wealth as part of the visa application process and this may reveal information the US and Britain are keen to have.
So, they are bound to get their application meetings. Actually getting a visa stamp may be a different matter, depending on the information they reveal.
Those wondering if Donald Trump knew what he was doing when he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem last week may now instead see a bigger picture emerging.
Either way, the screws are going in hard, albeit quietly, on the world’s wandering Putin allies which is going to leave the Russian particularly exposed and vulnerable in the coming months.
-Albert Jack
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