Zelensky Asks Biden Not To Sanction Chelsea Football Club Owner, Abramovich

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has asked American President, Joe Biden not to sanction Roman Abramovich as the Chelsea owner may be able to help with Russian peace talks, a report says.

Early this month, officials inside the US Treasury Department drafted a set of sanctions to punish Roman Abramovich, a prominent Russian oligarch, following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, say people familiar with the plans.

When it came time to announce those sanctions, which had been designed to go out in tandem with sanctions from the U.K. and European Union, the White House’s National Security Council told the Treasury to hold off, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Zelsneky had asked the US president to wait on sanctioning Mr Abramovich, who has a close relationship with Vladimir Putin, as Ukraine’s leaders believe he might be a crucial go-between with Moscow, an official told the newspaper.

On the call, Mr Biden reportedly spoke with Mr Zelensky on a range of sanctions that the White House intended to implement.

“We are not going to read out private conversations between President Biden and President Zelensky,” said Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the White House’s National Security Council.

The Chelsea Football Club billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich had earlier been hit by sanctions from the UK government.

But Top Flight reports that Chelsea Football Club could still be sold by the end of the month despite being under several sanctions and under the control of the UK Government.

Following the government taking control of the assets of former owner, Roman Abramovich, an American Investment firm has been tasked with selling the club, and following positive conversations, they believe the club could be sold by the end of the month.

The government will need to grant the club a new licence for a sale to go through after it placed sanctions on the club, but after an agreement was made that funds from a sale would go to charitable organisations and into a frozen account, the process of getting a new licence should be easy.

Credit: SaharaReporters

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