Abramovich will have to explain where his money comes from

Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, will have to explain the origin of his fortune - this is the condition for obtaining a new investment visa for Britain.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $ 10.8 billion (11th place in the list of Russia's richest businessmen), will have to explain the origin of his fortune and prove to the British authorities his legality, the newspaper Te Telegraph reports, without specifying sources of information. The publication notes that the UK authorities require this for issuing a new investment visa to the businessman in return for the expired.

The demand does not mean that an investigation has been opened against the owner of the Chelsea football club - visa conditions have become tougher for all foreign entrepreneurs, the newspaper notes. An investment visa can be obtained by people who have invested in the UK economy from £ 2 million. "Requests (for issuing a visa) can be rejected if the authorities believe that the applicant does not control the funds if the funds were received illegally or their origin indicates that obtaining a visa will not be favorable for the public interest," the newspaper explains.

The previous visa expired from the businessman in April. This was originally written by The Bell with reference to three sources, and later - Reuters, Bloomberg, BBC referring to its sources. Due to the fact that the businessman could not get a new visa, he had to return to Russia and miss the match of his club Chelsea, which was held on May 19, wrote the Financial Times (FT).

 
The FT indicated that Abramovich's application for an investor visa was sent for additional verification, since he submitted it from Russia, and not in the UK. The representative of the Prime Minister of Great Britain confirmed to the publication that additional checks are now being conducted on applications for such visas. He specified that after changing the procedure for obtaining visas in 2014-2015. the number of those wishing to receive them fell by 84%. New rules on the plan of the British authorities should exclude the provision of visas to people with illegally obtained capital.

A representative of the company Millhouse Capital (which manages Abramovich's investments) John Mann declined to comment on TASS information that the Russian businessman was not granted a British visa. "This is his own business. We do not comment on this, "Mann said.

A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, in turn, said that the Kremlin does not have information about the visa problems of the billionaire. At the same time, the representative of the Kremlin drew attention to the fact that Russian business has recently faced abroad with "various manifestations of unfair and unfriendly relations."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said support for US sanctions policy against Russian businessmen. He did not rule out the toughening of London's demands on representatives of Russian business after the British withdrawal from the European Union (now London has to coordinate the sanctions policy with Brussels). Earlier, the House of Commons Committee of the British Parliament on International Affairs also prepared a report "Moscow Gold: Russian Corruption in the UK." In it, parliamentarians warned of the risks of using London as unclean businessmen to legalize and launder dirty money from Russia. The Kremlin called the preparation of such a document "an unprecedented Russophobic mania."