Roman Abramovich is a Russian billionaire who is associated with vast yachts, former president of Russia Yeltsin, and Chelsea Football Club. Forbes estimates his wealth at $9.7 billion. In addition to Russian citizenship, the billionaire has Israeli and Portuguese citizenships, and continues to buy up luxury real estate abroad. However, the Russian oligarch does not forget about his homeland. Abramovich owns shares in the international metallurgical and mining company Evraz (28.64%), which supplies raw materials to the Russian military-industrial complex. Thus, the oligarch has already been sanctioned by the UK, the EU, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Ukraine for supporting Russia in its armed aggression in Ukraine and for his close ties to Putin. However, the billionaire is still not sanctioned by the United States.
Cooperation with the Russian military-industrial complex
The billionaire’s company Evraz has been supplying its products to the Russian army for more than 10 years in a row. Not only did it cooperate with the Rosgvardia, but also sold goods to factories producing explosives and tanks. For example, in 2015-2018, the Novokuznetsk plant Evraz ZSMK received more than $2.8 million for the supply of toluene from the state-owned plant for the production of ammunition and industrial explosives.
Toluene is an oil refining product in the form of a clear liquid with a pungent odor. It is used to produce paints, motor oil, medicines and cosmetics, and explosives.
Evraz is one of the world’s largest metallurgical and mining companies with assets in Russia, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy and Kazakhstan. The company is registered in the UK and also produces toluene.
In 2018, Evraz ZSMK (Nizhny Tagil) sold $1.4 million worth of steel to Uralvagonzavod, which produces tanks and civilian vehicles. In addition, in 2016 and 2017, Evraz’s subsidiary supplied the plant with vanadium slag, which is used to strengthen steel in weapons production.
Evraz ZSMK’s Novokuznetsk plant supplied toluene from 2015 to 2017 to the federal enterprise Biysky Oleum Plant. This is a large enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex that manufactures explosives for industrial and special purposes. It also produces and disposes ammunition and its components.
Yachts, villas, assets, and businesses transferred to children
Three weeks before the start of the full-scale invasion (in the winter of 2022), Abramovich transferred trusts with assets worth more than $4 billion to his children. In the first hours of the full-scale war, he transferred his Virgin Islands offshore company Norma Investments Ltd, which owns his assets in the US, Britain and Israel, to David Davidovich, the executive director of Millhouse LLC. A month after Western sanctions were imposed, about half of his $14 billion fortune was frozen.
More than ten properties across Europe were seized, and the United States issued a warrant to arrest the oligarch’s planes that flew to Russia from the United States in violation of the sanctions in March 2022. In December of the same year, the Canadian authorities announced the start of the process of confiscating the billionaire’s assets.
The oligarch owns eight yachts and the same number of escort vessels. The billionaire moved four of them from different countries to Turkey.
Last year, it became known that Abramovich could have bought a mansion in an expensive district of Istanbul, on the Bosphorus, for $18 million, the Turkish media Hürriyet writes. There are two buildings (about 2000 square meters) on the 9,600-square-meter plot. According to the newspaper, the new owner also received permission to build a helipad.
In January 2024, the media found out that the Target Global investment fund had been managing tens of millions of dollars on behalf of Abramovich and helped the businessman acquire assets in the largest startups in Europe. The businessman has invested $63 million in companies from the EU, including Revolut and Cazoo.
The oligarch’s family
Roman Abramovich buys up villas and European assets, builds helipads, and is considering buying a Spanish football club Valencia. His seven children follow their father’s steps in traveling and building businesses abroad.
Abramovich’s eldest daughter is Anna. She graduated from Columbia University’s Faculty of Philosophy. She was born in Abramovich’s second marriage to Irina Malandina. The couple was married for 16 years, from 1991 to 2007. Anna currently lives in New York.
Arkady Abramovich is the oligarch’s eldest son, a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston. He is currently 30 years old. He is the founder and owner of ARA Capital, which manages assets, including large stakes in Gazprom Neft.
Abramovich’s third child Sofia studied at Royal Holloway College in London, where she studied marketing and also took up horseback riding. She still lives in London.
Another oligarch’s daughter, Arina, also likes horseback riding and successfully takes part in competitions. Arina lives in the UK. Just like the other sisters, she hasn’t posted anything on her social media since February 24, 2022.
Ilya is the second son and youngest child of Roman and Iryna. Ilya graduated from a school in London and was preparing to enroll in the university. Abramovich also has two other children called Aaron and Leah Lu with model Dasha Zhukova. They were born in New York, where they still live with their mother.
