Roman Abramovich and Ukraine, billions on hold

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By: Manu Tournoux

Following the sale of the Chelsea club for more than two billion euros, Roman Abramovich had promised to donate all the money to the victims of the war between Russia, his country, and Ukraine. But there is nothing so far…

Pushed out by English politicians, who no longer accepted seeing Russians invest in their country following the declaration of war in Ukraine, Roman Abramovich had to sell his Chelsea club as soon as possible. After a few weeks of negotiations, the Russian billionaire has reached an agreement with Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, two investors who have spent 2.5 billion pounds to recover Chelsea. Following this extraordinary sale, Abramovich had promised to transfer two billion euros to “a charitable foundation to meet the needs of victims on both sides of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine”.

The British government does not accept Abramovich’s deal

Except that for the moment, this money is still in Abramovich’s hands. Indeed, according to information from the Daily Mail, the two billion are still frozen in a bank account, the Russian having to give his agreement to release the funds. What should have been done last summer or even in January, but the people concerned are still waiting for the green light from Abramovich. For the moment, nothing says that the Russian will not respect his word, knowing that “hope remains”. It must be said that the British media specifies that Abramovich wants his money to be well distributed between Ukrainians and Russians, which the British government refuses. A detail that therefore blocks everything, while Ukraine would need money to finance a winter that promises to be rough…

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