Following the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian oligarchs have been showered with international sanctions from countries such as the UK. The source of the Russian money, which was flowing into the bank accounts of oligarchs, has long been neglected with the prospect of investment and economic stability enough to convince most people that these wealthy Russians were beneficial for the country. Roman Abramovich is arguably more involved in British society, who until recently was the billionaire owner of Chelsea.

The question we should now consider, especially after the sanctions imposed on him by the British government is: where did Abramovich acquire his immense wealth?

Orphaned at the age of just 3 when his father was killed in an accident involving a construction crane (his mother dying two years prior as a result to blood poisoning) he was brought up by close relatives. Abramovich explained how in truth he "cannot call” his “childhood bad," in a rare interview with the Guardian, despite tight financial situations. He later joined the Red army, before resorting to cosmetics and perfumes for a living, benefitting from Gorbachev’s increased openness and allowance for increased entrepreneurship.

As the USSR’s internal stability escalated and lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Abramovich was able to obtain the oil company Sibneft in a rigged auction in 1995, from the government, for a sum around £190 million. 10 years later in 2005, he then sold the company back to the government for £9.9 billion, a clear exploitation of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and illegal rigged auctions to obtain his wealth. The ‘Aluminium wars’ of the 1990s saw him gaining millions of pounds in assets through a political power struggle for monopolies in the aluminium industry among oligarchs, often through inhumane means, with Abramovich admitting that "Every three days, someone was being murdered".

Emerging from the smouldering ashes of the USSR, he found himself with sufficient money, choosing to increase his involvement in politics and foreign culture. In 2003, he acquired Chelsea football club, pumping almost £1 billion of his wealth into the British economy through his sporting and political links. Not only was he actively involved in politics abroad, there is speculation that he is a close political ally of President Vladimir Putin, one of the main reasons he has been greeted so heavily with sanctions. At the start of Putin’s premiership, he aimed to exert greater control over the oligarchs of Russia, with Abramovich falling to neither fate. As his influence in western societies grew, more politicians became fearful of the potential underlying corruption associated with not just Abramovich but most oligarchs due to their links with senior Russian politicians.

However, the suspected chemical attack on Abramovich and several other Ukrainian delegates at peace talks on the Ukrainian – Belarusian border has raised questions on his more recent relationship with the Kremlin. Many western countries have shown concern, especially over the fact that the GRU (Russia’s intelligence service) has been responsible for the 2018 Novichock poisonings in 2018. Another equally concerning possibility is the chance that Russian hardliners attempted to sabotage peace talks, raising the question of how easy it is for further sabotage in later peace talks as well as the spread of misinformation regarding the invasion within Russia. Current evidence suggests the poisoning may have been as a warning, with a lethal dose not being administered in the first place.

Abramovich’s underlying influence and involvement in politics and the torrent of sanctions that are meeting him truly raises the question whether his potentially corrupt dealings in the past will “return to plague th’inventor”.