LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday declined to comment on whether sanctions would be imposed on Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, but said the “vice” was tightening on those around Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There have been growing calls in Britain for Abramovich, who owns English Premier League soccer club Chelsea, to be included in economic measures against Russians who are said to be close to Putin.
“He’s a person of interest to the Home Office (interior ministry) because of his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices,” opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said in parliament.
“Last week, the prime minister said that Abramovich is facing sanctions, he later corrected the record to say that it isn’t. Well, why on earth isn’t he?”
In response, Johnson said he could not go into details on specific cases.
“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on individual cases at this stage,” Johnson said. “But be in no doubt that the actions that we’ve already taken … are having an effect in Moscow by exposing the ownership of properties of companies in the way that we are.”
He added: “They will have heard what the president of the United States had to say last night, the vice is tightening on the Putin regime, and it will continue to tighten.”
Abramovich, 55, who has Israeli citizenship, was one of the most powerful businessmen who earned fabulous fortunes after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. Forbes has put his net worth at $13.3 billion.
His spokeswoman said on Monday that Abramovich had accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although it was unclear what role he would have.
On Saturday, he said he was giving “stewardship” of Chelsea to trustees of their charitable foundation.
(Reporting by William James, writing by Michael Holden. Editing by Andrew MacAskill and Alistair Smout)
