Katana VentraIP

Roman Abramovich

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (Russian: Роман Аркадьевич Абрамович, pronounced [rɐˈman ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ɐbrɐˈmovʲɪtɕ]; born 24 October 1966)[1] is a Russian businessman and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the primary owner of the private investment company Millhouse.[2] He has Russian, Israeli and Portuguese citizenship.[3][4]

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Arkadyevich and the family name is Abramovich.

Roman Abramovich

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich

(1966-10-24) 24 October 1966
Saratov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
(present-day Saratov, Russia)
  • Russia
  • Israel
  • Portugal
Olga Lysova
​
​
(m. 1987; div. 1990)​
Irina Malandina
​
​
(m. 1991; div. 2007)​
​
​
(m. 2008; div. 2018)​

7, including Arkadiy Abramovich

  • Businessman
  • Politician

He was formerly Governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug from 2000 to 2008. According to Forbes, Abramovich's net worth was US$14.5 billion in 2021.[5] making him the second-richest person in Israel,[6][7] Since then, his wealth decreased to $6.9 billion (in 2022), and recovered up to $9.2 billion in 2023.[8] Abramovich enriched himself in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, obtaining Russian state-owned assets at prices far below market value in Russia's controversial loans-for-shares privatisation program. Abramovich is considered to have a good relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin,[9] an allegation Abramovich has denied.[10]

Early life[edit]

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich was born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (present-day Saratov, Russia). His mother, Irina (1939−1967), was a music teacher who died when Abramovich was one year old.[11] His father, Aaron Abramovich Leibovich (1937−1969), who was of Jewish descent,[12] worked in the economic council of the Komi ASSR,[13] and died when Roman was three.[11] Roman's maternal grandparents were Vasily Mikhailenko and Faina Borisovna Grutman, both born in Ukraine. It was to Saratov in the early days of World War II that Roman's maternal grandmother fled from Ukraine. Irina was then three years old.[14] Roman's paternal grandparents, Nachman Leibovich and Toybe (Tatyana) Stepanovna Abramovich, were Belarusian Jews.[14] They lived in Belarus and, after the revolution, moved to Tauragė, Lithuania,[15][16][17] with the Lithuanian spelling of the family name being Abramavičius.


In 1940, the Soviet Union (USSR) annexed Lithuania. Just before the Nazi German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets "cleared the anti-Soviet, criminal and socially dangerous element" with whole families being sent to Siberia. Abramovich's grandparents were separated when deported. The father, mother and children – Leib, Abram and Aron (Arkady) – were in different camps. Many of the deportees died in the camps. Among them was the grandfather of Abramovich. Nachman Leibovich died in 1942 in the NKVD camp in the settlement of Resheti, Krasnoyarsk Territory.[14]


Having lost both parents before the age of 4,[15] Abramovich was raised by relatives and spent much of his youth in the Komi Republic in northern Russia. Abramovich is the Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, and a trustee of the Moscow Jewish Museum.[18] Abramovich decided to establish a forest of some 25,000 new and rehabilitated trees, in memory of Lithuania's Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, plus a virtual memorial and tribute to Lithuanian Jewry (Seed a Memory) enabling people from all over the world to commemorate their ancestors' personal stories by naming a tree and including their name in the memorial.[19]

Relationship with Russian leaders[edit]

Boris Yeltsin[edit]

By 1996, at the age of 30, Abramovich had become close to President Boris Yeltsin and had moved into an apartment inside the Kremlin at the invitation of the Yeltsin family.[105]


In 1999, the 33-year-old Abramovich was elected governor of the Russian province of Chukotka. He ran for a second term as governor in 2005. The Kremlin press service reported that Abramovich's name had been sent for approval as governor for another term to Chukotka's local parliament, which confirmed his appointment on 21 October 2005.

Vladimir Putin[edit]

Abramovich was the first person to recommend to Yeltsin that Vladimir Putin be his successor as the Russian president.[106]: 135  When Putin formed his first cabinet as Prime Minister in 1999, Abramovich interviewed each of the candidates for cabinet positions before they were approved.[31]: 102  Subsequently, Abramovich would remain one of Putin's closest confidants. In 2007, Putin consulted in meetings with Abramovich on the question of who should be his successor as president; Medvedev was personally recommended by Abramovich.[106]: 135, 271 


Chris Hutchins, a biographer of Putin, described the relationship between the Russian president and Abramovich as like that between a father and a favourite son. In the early 2000s, Abramovich said that when he addressed Putin he uses the Russian language's formal "вы" (like Spanish "usted" or German "Sie"), as opposed to the informal "ты" (like Spanish "tú" or German "du") as a mark of respect for Putin's seniority.[107] Within the Kremlin, Abramovich was referred to as "Mr. A".[108]


In September 2012, the England and Wales High Court judge Elizabeth Gloster claimed that Abramovich's influence on Putin was limited: "There was no evidential basis supporting the contention that Mr. Abramovich was in a position to manipulate, or otherwise influence, President Putin, or officers in his administration, to exercise their powers in such a way as to enable Mr. Abramovich to achieve his own commercial goals."[109]


Gloster oversaw the case between Russian oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Abramovich. She found Berezovsky to be "an inherently unreliable witness" and sided with Abramovich in 2012. It later emerged that Gloster's stepson had been paid almost £500,000 to represent Abramovich as a barrister early in the case. Her stepson's involvement was alleged to be more than had been disclosed. Berezovsky stated, "Sometimes I have the impression that Putin himself wrote this judgment". Gloster declined to comment.[110][111][112]


In 2021, it was reported by the Washington Examiner that the U.S. intelligence community believes Abramovich is a "bag carrier", or a financial middleman, for Putin.[113]

Controversies[edit]

Boris Berezovsky allegations[edit]

In 2011, Boris Berezovsky brought a civil case against Abramovich, called Berezovsky v Abramovich,[39] in the High Court of Justice in London, but Berzovsky was unsuccessful in the case.[40] (see § Relationship with Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili)

Bribery[edit]

In 2008, The Times reported that court papers showed Abramovich admitting that he paid billions of dollars for political favors and protection fees for shares of Russia's oil and aluminum assets.[114]

Allegations of loan fraud[edit]

An allegation emerging from a Swiss investigation links Roman Abramovich, through a former company, and numerous other Russian politicians, industrialists and bankers to using a US$4.8 billion (€3.4 billion) loan from the IMF as personal slush fund; an audit sponsored by the IMF itself determined that all of the IMF funds had been used appropriately.[115]


In January 2005, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) indicated that it would be suing Abramovich over a £9 million (US$14.9 million/€10.6 million) loan.[116] The EBRD said that it is owed US$17.5 million (€12.45 million/£10.6 million) by Runicom, a Switzerland-based oil trading business which had been controlled by Abramovich and Eugene Shvidler. Abramovich's spokesman indicated that the loan had previously been repaid.[117]

Antitrust law violation in Russia[edit]

Russia's antitrust body, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, claimed that Evraz Holding, owned in part by Abramovich, had breached Russian competition law by offering unfavorable terms for contractors and discriminating against domestic consumers for coking coal, a key material used in steel production.[118]

Dispute with Kolomoyskyi[edit]

According to Putin, Abramovich has been cheated by Ukrainian-Cypriot-Israeli oligarch Igor Kolomoyskyi. Putin claimed in 2014 that Kolomoyskyi had reneged on a contract with Abramovich, saying that the pair signed a multibillion-dollar deal on which Kolomoyskyi never delivered.[119]

Pollution and climate change[edit]

According to The Guardian, in 2015 his $766m stake in Evraz, the steel and mining company, gave him ownership of about a quarter of Russia's largest coal mine, the Raspadskaya coal complex in Siberia, whose reserves represented 1.5GT of carbon emissions, comparable to the annual output of Russia itself.[120]


According to The Conversation, "Roman Abramovich, who made most of his $19 billion fortune trading oil and gas, was the biggest polluter on our list" of most polluting billionaires, estimating "that he was responsible for at least 33,859 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2018 – more than two-thirds from his yacht."[121]

Funding of Israeli settlements[edit]

An investigation by BBC News Arabic has found that Abramovich controls companies that have donated $100 million to an Israeli settler organisation, Elad, which aims to strengthen the Jewish connection to the annexed East Jerusalem, and renew the Jewish community in the City of David. Analysis of bank documents indicate Abramovich is the largest single donor to the organization. The bank documents - known as the FinCEN Files - were leaked to BuzzFeed News, then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the BBC.[122][123][124][125]

162.5 m (533 ft) – Built in Germany by Blohm + Voss, she was launched in September 2009.[189] Abramovich was due to take delivery of the yacht in December 2009,[190] but was delayed for almost a year after extensive sea trials. The yacht's interior and exterior were designed by Terence Disdale. Eclipse is believed to have cost Abramovich around US$400 million and was the world's largest privately owned yacht until it was eclipsed in 2013 by the 180 m (590 ft) Azzam. The specification includes at least two swimming pools, a cinema, two helicopter landing-pads, several on-board tenders and a submarine that can be launched and dive to a depth of 160 ft. She is also equipped with armour plating surrounding the bridge and Abramovich's master suite, as well as bullet proof windows.[191]

Eclipse

[192]

Solaris

A 2022 Financial Times report linked Abramovich to the 67-meter yacht Garçon, which is moored in Antigua.

[193]

In popular culture[edit]

Abramovich is a central character in Peter Morgan's 2022 play Patriots, dramatising the life of Boris Berezovsky.[204][205]

List of Jews in sports (non-players)

List of Russian billionaires

Russian oligarchs

List of people and organizations sanctioned during the Russo-Ukrainian War

List of Jews born in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

Midgley, Dominic; Hutchins, Chris (3 May 2005). Abramovich: The Billionaire from Nowhere. Harper Collins Willow.  978-0-00-718984-7.

ISBN

Hoffman, David (4 December 2003). The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. Public Affairs.  978-1-58648-202-2.

ISBN

Bennetts, Marc (15 May 2008). Football Dynamo – Modern Russia and the People's Game. Virgin Books.  978-0-7535-1319-4.

ISBN

(31 October 2010). Waste of Money: Overspending in Football. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1905411931.

Stenning, Paul

Abramovich's profile and assets on Russian Asset Tracker

Forbes: Roman Abramovich

(Bleacher Report, 2010)

Roman Abramovich: Not Your Everyday Owner

(2005)

Pravda: Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich tops Russia's richest men list

(31 August 2012)

BBC Profile: Roman Abramovich

(2010)

The Main People in the Russian Art

Media related to Roman Abramovich at Wikimedia Commons