Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich is a Russian oligarch 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. He has Russian, Israeli and Portuguese citizenship.
Abramovich at Stamford Bridge during a 4–0 victory over Portsmouth in August 2008
Abramovich watches his team Chelsea play against Leicester City, August 2014
Abramovich at the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final
Abramovich with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 21 November 2021
Russian oligarchs are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials as a means to acquire state property.
Putin (left), with Mikhail Khodorkovsky (right) in December 2002. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed the following year.
Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg in 2015
Putin (left) with Oleg Deripaska (right) in the Kremlin in March 2002
Putin (left), with Petr Fradkov (right) in the Kremlin in May 2019