The Honorable Judge of the High Court of Justice of London, Elizabeth Gloster, had no doubt in her 2012 ruling that Roman Abramóvich (Saratov, Russia, 54 years old), the billionaire owner of the Chelsea football club, “if necessary, he would be willing to act ruthlessly in a business context to achieve his goals. "
The same magistrate, however, agreed with him in one of the most expensive and notorious commercial litigation in history.
"The owner of Chelsea FC has won his legal battle against the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky," the BBC announced at the time when the ruling was known.
Abramovich was the man who had brought the London club to glory.
His former partner and mathematical genius, Berezovsky, was an "oligarch," the term for the wealthy in the shadow of power in post-Soviet Russia.
The personal fortune of the first, as estimated by the magazine
Forbes
or the
Bloomberg
news agency
, it ranges between 10,000 and 13,000 million euros.
The second was found hanging from a rope a year later, at his ex-wife's house in Ascot (United Kingdom).
By then it was already broke and had a debt of more than 350 million euros.
The 'Solaris', the newly built yacht owned by Roman Abramóvick moored at a pier at the Lloyd-Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, on March 15, 2021. FOCKE STRANGMANN / EFE
The divorces of Róman Abramovich
Switzerland denies Roman Abramóvich a residence permit
Abramovich collects yachts and quarrels.
His new boat, the
Solaris
, was launched in early March from the Bremerhaven shipyards in Germany.
140 million in length.
Final price: 500 million euros.
Pool, helipad, capacity for a crew of 60 people and prepared to accommodate 36 guests.
A total of 48 cabins.
It is not the largest of its ships.
Of the seven, the most spectacular remains the Eclipse, 162 meters long.
The expansion of the fleet has coincided with the new battle in the British courts of the Russian billionaire.
A libel suit against editor
Harper Collins
and author Catherine Belton, a former correspondent for the
Financial Times
in Moscow.
In the book
Putin's People,
the investor turned dissident, Sergei Pugachev, is quoted as saying that Abramóvich bought the English football club by direct order of Putin, to increase the capacity of Russian influence in the West.
"I have not made this decision lightly," the tycoon said in a public statement.
"I have never aspired to have a relevant public profile, and I have always avoided commenting on any matter, even in the face of false information about myself or about Chelsea."
The 'Eclipse', Roman Abramovich's yacht.GTRESONLINE
He has always preferred the shade, and that his properties or his actions speak for him.
When his name began to gain notoriety, during the nineties and the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the press did everything possible to have an image of him.
The son of a middle-class Jewish couple was orphaned at the age of four.
He was taken care of by his paternal uncles, with whom he grew up in Moscow.
His instincts for business emerged in 1974, when he had to do conscription and discovered that the irregular sale of gasoline to officers brought huge profits.
The
perestroika
Gorbachev, with its openness to privatization of trade, was the launching pad of a young Abramovich had already managed original business.
Like the toy company specializing in rubber ducks that he stored and distributed from his college room.
Sponsored by Boris Berezovsky, a businessman with influence in the Yeltsin government, he began to negotiate in gas and oil, at a time when these resources were not yet being exploited in Russia to their maximum capacity.
It was acquiring properties as they opened up to privatization.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich;
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Arshavin during the World Cup in South Africa.
Many consider him the last survivor of the Russian oligarchs. The only one who has managed to maintain a low profile and good relationship with the almighty Putin. With no political ambitions posing a threat to the Kremlin inhabitant, his only leap to "power" was the 2003 purchase of Chelsea. According to various media, he used the profits made after selling a significant stake in the Russian airline Aeroflot. He dumped millions of pounds on the club, filled it with star signings and attracted the most coveted coach of the moment, José Mourinho. Five English league titles and a Champions League in 2012 against Bayern Munich. Eighteen years at the helm of a team that made Abramóvich a familiar face to the English. Not wanted, however, beyond devoted fans. The growing tension between London and Moscow, which reached its peak after the assassination attempt, in the town of Salisbury, of double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018, made things difficult for the tycoon, who began a period of public reclusion and already it was not easy to see him smile in the box at Stamford Bridge. In that same year, Abramóvich gave up his attempt to renew the British visa and acquired Israeli nationality.
