London and the ultimate love of Russian oligarchs: Abramovich is punished, but he is useless

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On the top floor of the amphitheater Matthew Harding inside a stadium Stamford Bridgeheadquarters Chelsea Football ClubThere is the flag of Russia, with an inscription in Cyrillic letters “Roman EmpireThis flag has no political symbol, but it was put there by fans: it is an expression of gratitude towards it Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch that bought Chelsea FC in 2003, and by extension, quickly transformed the club into one of the modern football superpowers. English Premier League winners and European champions twice in less than ten years: winning the Champions League In 2012, under the guidance of the Italian Roberto Di Matteo; And last year.

Now it is possible, however, that this flag will be removed from the stadium: after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian miser was banned. And even the idea that even the club could be taken out of his hands. The British government decided that she would not be able to live in the UK, as a retaliatory move towards Moscow and the Prime Minister. Russian President Vladimir Putin: obstructing the economic interests of many Russian oligarchs that are rooted in the United Kingdom. And they used the world of football as a pioneer.

Major Berezovsky

Abramovich, a tycoon with an estimated fortune of 14 billion dollars (The number that puts it “only” 131st place in the world According to Forbes) one of the first Russians to invest in London: after the privatization of the former Soviet empire under Boris YeltsinIn the early 1990s, the Russian oligarch, a group of private entrepreneurs who appeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, began to turn the English capital into a kind of five-star “monopoly”, paying billions of rubles that left Moscow: it collected everyone’s assets From real estate to luxury cars.

Among the pioneers, Boris BerezovskyThe owner of the giant car company AutoVaz , and “Dolphin” Abramovich. He favored the English corporate legal system, a few controls and limited bureaucracy, for yearsRussian capital flows. Buying a soccer team from America for the first time in history Premier League, from Russian, something clicks. Football was a paradigm shift: even then the Russian oligarchs flaunted their fortune in London, but they were all in all numbers second-rate, not part of the establishment.

Thanks to Chelsea, Abramovich has become a public figure, but above all else strong. So it is untouchable, because it openly funds the Conservative Party. Timing is crucial: the turning point coincides with the rise of Vladimir Putin, who was elected president of Russia in April 2000.