ZCZC
BSP-21
RUSSIA-ISRAEL-BRITAIN-FBL-CHELSEA
Kremlin says Abramovich ‘has right’ to Israeli citizenship
MOSCOW, May 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has the
right to Israeli citizenship, the Kremlin said Tuesday, after the Chelsea
football club-owner reportedly travelled to Israel and became a citizen after
delays to his British visa application.
“The Kremlin doesn’t think anything about this,” presidential spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told journalists in response to a question on the reported move
by Abramovich, a former regional governor seen as being on good terms with
President Vladimir Putin.
“An entrepreneur receives Israeli citizenship. So what? It’s his right,”
Peskov said of Abramovich, who is Jewish.
Abramovich, who was reportedly in Russia in recent days, flew into Tel
Aviv on a private jet and received an Israeli identity card, local Channel 10
television reported.
Spokesmen for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office contacted
by AFP did not confirm or deny the report. Abramovich’s spokesman John Mann
refused to comment, saying it was a personal matter.
Israel’s Law of Return gives every Jew, or child or grandchild of a Jew,
the right to Israeli citizenship on demand.
Sources in Abramovich’s entourage told Russian and international media
earlier this month that Abramovich’s British visa had run out and his
application for a new one was taking longer than usual.
Abramovich, 51, has a fortune estimated at 9.3 billion pounds ($12.5
billion) by the Sunday Times. He bought Chelsea football club in 2003.
The reports of his visa problems came as British MPs urged the government
to clamp down on corrupt Russian money flowing through London. They called
for global action to tighten loopholes in existing sanctions targeting
oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Abramovich served as governor of Russia’s remote Chukotka from 2000 to
2008 and pumped in millions of dollars to develop the remote region. Putin
repeatedly urged Abramovich to stay on as governor while he was already
living between Russia and Britain.
He sold his majority stake in oil major Sibneft to state-controlled Gazprom
in 2005 for 13 billion dollars.
BSS/AFP/FI/1717 hrs