End of the charmed life for Roman Abramovich’s seven children? Billionaire’s brood enjoy jet-set holiday and live in million-pound homes – but those party invites are bound to dry up after sanctions
- Abramovich has had his UK assets frozen, including a £150m Kensington mansion and a £22m penthouse
- Sanctions threaten the fantastically gilded lives of his seven children, who live mainly in the US and UK
- Best known is Sofia, 27, a Royal Holloway graduate and equestrian who has partied with the Beckhams
- Chelsea FC owner Roman has been married three times and has a total of seven children, aged eight to 30
Roman Abramovich was hit with an asset freeze and a travel ban under new sanctions unveiled today, bringing an abrupt end to the glittering life he has enjoyed in the UK.
But it also threatens to upend the fantastically gilded existence enjoyed by his seven children, who live in multi-million pound homes and ultra-luxe holidays but might soon find themselves struggling to gain invites to society events, parties and jet-set holidays due to their father’s reputation.
Best known of the 55-year-old billionaire’s brood is glamorous Sofia, 27, a Royal Holloway graduate and equestrian who has partied with the Beckhams and the Ramsays.
Her Instagram feed is full of snaps of holidays to Ibiza, the Maldives and St Barts, where Abramovich has a 70-acre estate. Others have her training for or taking part in showjumping competitions; she represented Russia in London in 2014.
Sofia splits her time between London and the family’s 425-acre Fyning Hill Estate in Petersfield, West Sussex, which was given to Irina as part of her divorce settlement, as well as £150million in cash.
Roman’s golden girl: Roman Abramovich was hit with an asset freeze and a travel ban under new sanctions unveiled today, bringing an abrupt end to the glittering life he has enjoyed in the UK. But it also threatens to upend the fantastically gilded existence enjoyed by his seven children, including his glamorous daughter Sofia, 27, pictured in snaps shared on Instagram
Jet-set: Sofia’s Instagram feed is full of snaps of holidays to Ibiza, the Maldives and St Barts, where Abramovich has a 70-acre estate. Others have her training for or taking part in showjumping competitions. Pictured, Sofia (right) at New Years
Big brood: Eldest daughter Anna (left), who studied philosophy at Columbia University in New York and continues to live in the US, made headlines when she got engaged at 18 (they later split) and previously partied with Calum Best and Ronnie Wood’s son, Jamie. Right, Arkadiy is following in his father’s footsteps and building his own business empire in Russia. At 21, he already has his own investment company, ARA Capital
Daddy’s girl: Sofia is the third of Abramovich’s seven children. Pictured, the 27-year-old with her billionaire father
Chelsea FC owner Mr Abramovich, who is worth an estimated £9bn, also owns a £150million Kensington mansion, a £22million West London penthouse, and more than £1.2billion of yachts, private jets, helicopters and supercars based in Britain and around the world.
Under the new sanctions unveiled today, Mr Abramovich and six other Russian oligarchs have have their assets in the UK frozen, are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.
It means Mr Abramovich will not be able to sell Chelsea FC, his most valuable asset worth an estimated £3bn, as he had hoped.
While she is not a regular fixture on the London social scene, Sofia might soon struggle to find friends to invite on her sun-soaked escapes, for fear of being tainted by her father’s ties with Putin.
This, perhaps, is partly why she took the unusual step of publicly decrying the Russian invasion.
Last week Sofia posted an image on Instagram Stories showing the phrase ‘Russia wants a war with Ukraine’, with the word Russia crossed out and replaced with ‘Putin’.
First wife: Roman with Olga, who he met when he was 20 and she was a 23-year-old daughter of a government diplomat
Second wife: Abramovich’s second wife, Irina, a London-based former Aeroflot stewardess who wed the Russian tycoon in 1991. She is seen cheering on Chelsea against Tottenham in 2005
Third wife: Magazine editor Dasha Zhukova (left), who he was with between 2008 and 2017. More recently he has been romantically linked to ballerina Diana Vishneva, seen on stage as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet Kirov Ballet at the Coliseum
A second post read: ‘The biggest and most successful lie of Kremlin’s propaganda is that most Russians stand with Putin.’ She also shared an image of Putin with a red line across him.
It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to save Sofia from facing the same fate as Ivana Trump, who was given the cold shoulder by much of New York high society after her father was elected.
Glamorous Sofia has six siblings and half-siblings from her father’s various marriages. Her mother Irina, a one-time air hostess and Roman’s second wife, was married to him for 16 years and bore him five children: Anna, 30, Arkadiy, 28, Sofia, Arina, 21, and Ilya, 19.
Anna, who studied philosophy at Columbia University in New York and continues to live in the US, made headlines when she got engaged at 18 (they later split) and previously partied with Calum Best and Ronnie Wood’s son, Jamie.
Party girl! Sofia Abramovich is known for her love of a party, including this birthday celebration complete with macaron-covered cake, created by baker Peggy Porschen
Speaking out: With her Instagram post earlier last week (right), 27-year-old Sofia joined a chorus of other wealthy Russian who have expressed their disgust at Putin’s actions
Pride and joy: Roman cuddles Sofia in a photo shared on Instagram. She faces being shut out from social events
Sun-seeker: Sofia was born in Russia and moved to England in 2003 with her parents and elder siblings, Anna and Arkadiy. Now the 27-year-old regularly shares photos of her glamorous holidays to St Barts and the Maldives
Charmed life at risk? While she is not a regular fixture on the London social scene, Sofia might soon struggle to find friends to invite on her sun-soaked escapes, for fear of being tainted by her father’s ties with Putin
Meanwhile Arkadiy is following in his father’s footsteps and building his own business empire in Russia. At 21, he already has his own investment company, ARA Capital.
Seven more oligarchs sanctioned by UK
Roman Abramovich is one of seven Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the UK Government today.
The Government estimates his wealth at more than £9billion and notes his stakes in steel giant Evraz, Norilsk Nickel and ownership of Chelsea FC.
The other oligarchs sanctioned today are:
- Oleg Deripaska: Estimated wealth of £2billion and a multi-million-pound Uk property portfolio. Subject to US sanctions since 2018. Has stakes in En+ Group, a major extractives and energy company which owns UC Rusal, one of the world’s major aluminium producers.
- Igor Sechin: Chief Executive of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company. The Government said he is ‘particularly close and influential ally of Putin’. Already sanctioned by the US and EU.
- Andrey Kostin: Chairman of VTB bank, the second largest bank in Russia. A ‘close associate of Putin’ who has ‘long supported Kremlin objectives through VTB Bank’. Net worth of £379 million. Already sanctioned by the US and EU.
- Alexei Miller: Chief executive of of energy company Gazprom. Served under Putin when autocrat was mayor of St Petersburg. Already sanctioned by the US.
- Nikolai Tokarev: President of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft. Former KGB agent who served alongside Putin in East Germany. Already sanctioned by the US and EU.
- Dmitri Lebedev: Chairman of Bank Rossiya, which is ‘widely considered to be the Kremlin’s private bank’. Sanctioned by the US in 2016.
By the time his divorce from Irina was announced, Roman had been spotted numerous times with the future Mrs Abramovich number three, Darya Zhukova, a former model known as Dasha, with whom he has two children, Aaron, 12, and Leah Lou, eight. The couple divorced in 2017.
Sofia was born in Russia and moved to England in 2003 with her parents and elder siblings, Anna and Arkadiy.
It is thought she attended the £23,531-a-year Godolphin and Latymer private school in West London.
Her older sister, Anna, said their journeys to school often started with a helicopter flight into a Battersea heliport. A waiting chauffeur-driven car bristling with bodyguards would complete the five-mile journey to the school.
Indeed, school friends previously noted that Sofia and her siblings never go anywhere without man mountain bodyguards, a provision ordered by their father.
As Sofia’s mother confirmed in a very rare interview: ‘My life with Roman was not the fairytale the papers reported. For my security, and that of our children, he hired a group of bodyguards from a protection agency.
‘We changed mobile phone numbers once a week so no one could trace our whereabouts. We were afraid of kidnapping attempts, yet we could not hide our children and not show them real life.
‘So we went to theatres and museums with a crowd of bodyguards. Each year it got harder.’
The high security treatment continued when Sofia enrolled in a business and management course at Royal Holloway, in Egham, Surrey.
She was chauffeur-driven everywhere in Range Rovers, which are reported to be bulletproof.
Aside from her studies, Sofia’s idea of heaven is riding her horses. Sofia regularly posts pictures on social media posing with her horses at her own stables, beaming happily as she snuggles them.
She’s become a fanatical showjumper, riding for Russia at the Longines Global Champions Tour and events in Monaco, too.
Her 18th birthday party was a £30,000 extravaganza fit for an heiress. She hired out her own nightclub, invited 500 friends and was serenaded by Scouting For Girls and McBusted.
The event was held at the Under The Bridge nightclub at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground, and a clearly delighted Sofia posted a snap with McBusted online afterwards.
But it is far from the most luxurious bash Sofia has attended.
To ring in the New Year in 2016, for example, she joined her mother and younger siblings at their usual haunt: the One & Only Reethi Rah nightclub in the Maldives, the pinnacle of tropical luxury — at an estimated price of £200,000.
Sofia partied alongside her celebrity friends, the Beckhams and the Ramsays.
Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska’s FROZEN fortunes: From £3BN Chelsea FC, luxury superyachts, country estates and Mayfair ‘crash pads’… Russian oligarchs’ multi-billion pound assets now sanctioned by UK
Roman Abramovich has today had at least £3.2billion of UK assets frozen, preventing him carrying out a fire sale of Chelsea FC and his London homes.
Abramovich is worth £10.4bn ($12.5bn), according to Forbes, and owns a £150m Kensington mansion, a £22m West London penthouse, and more than £1.2bn of yachts, private jets, helicopters and supercars based in Britain and around the world.
Also on the new sanctions list is Oleg Deripaska, once Russia’s richest man and named in Parliament as one of President Putin’s most loyal oligarchs giving him a net worth of between £2billion and £3.2billion. Deripaska, who once famously entertained Blairite spin doctor Lord Mandelson on his yacht, is understood to own a £50million ‘crashpad’ property on Belgrave Square in London.
He is also rumoured to have properties in nearby Eaton Square and a Surrey mansion, although the oil tycoon does not appear on the titles.
Also on today’s sanctions list Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russian oil company Rosneft, Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB bank, Alexei Miller, chief executive of energy giant Gazprom, Nikolai Tokarev, president of Russian state-owned pipeline company Transneft and Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors at Bank Rossiya.
Due to the habitual use of offshore companies to buy properties, it is not yet clear what assets they own in the UK, if any, but they are all banned from visiting the UK or its territories.
Roman Abramovich now cannot sell any of his UK assets without a special licence, which are near impossible to get. Any cash he holds in the UK are now frozen in accounts if he has not been able to transfer funds abroad, while his shares on the London Stock Exchange cannot be sold and will pay no dividends.
Chelsea FC is his most valuable British asset, after the oligarch transformed its fortunes from outside challengers to Premier League giants with the help of Jose Mourinho and huge signings like Didier Drogba.
But now he has been prohibited from transactions with UK individuals and businesses – meaning his plan to sell the West London club looks impossible. It could still go through provided the Government issues a licence if he asks for one, with lawyers claiming he would have to prove he would not benefit from the sale.
Effective immediately, Chelsea is banned from selling match tickets, signing new players and must even close its club shop. Shirt sponsor Three is already considering walking away from their £40million shirt deal.
In London, over the past fortnight his staff are said to have been ready for viewings at his 15-bedroom mansion at Kensington Palace Gardens, valued at more than £150m, and a three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront, worth an estimated £22m. These now cannot be sold off and cannot be rented unless tenants are already in.
Abramovich is worth £10.4bn ($12.5bn), according to Forbes, and owns a £150m Kensington mansion, a £22m penthouse, and more than £1.2bn of yachts, private jets, helicopters and supercars based in Britain and around the world. He now cannot sell any of them
Oligarchs with the links to the UK include Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska (picturedright), who was once Russia’s richest man
Deripaska has a home in Belgrave Square and is also rumoured to have a home at nearby Eaton Square and a Surrey mansion
His two superyachts may already be out of reach. £430million Solaris was moored in Barcelona a week ago but is now off the Sicily coast, believed to be heading to Israel, where he holds citizenship. The £540million Eclipse is currently in open sea off the coast of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.
The billionaire recently bought a £264m Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jet. The 50-seater aircraft is the world’s most expensive private jet with a base cost of £188m and a rumoured £76m of additional equipment to the billionaire’s taste, Forbes reported, citing industry sources. It was last tracked to Dubai six days ago. Meanwhile, his £50m Gulfstream G650ER jet – registration LX-Ray – was last seen in Ankara, Turkey, five days ago.
His £80m private jet nicknamed The Bandit, left Stansted Airport on February 25 – the day before a blanket ban on Russian aircraft in EU and UK airspace was imposed. It then landed in Switzerland. It is not clear if he or any of his family were on board.
He also owns a fleet of supercars valued at more than £16million, believed to be in the UK. Among the high end vehicles are a Porsche 911 GT1 Evo, a Ferrari FXX, a Aston Martin Vulcan and a Maserati MC12 Corsa. The fleet also includes a Pagani Zonda R, of which only 15 have ever been produced and come with a price tag of £2.5m.
Abramovich has seven children from two of his ex-wives. The eldest, Anna, 29, is a Columbia University philosophy graduate who lives in New York, while Arkadiy, 27, is an industrial tycoon with substantial oil and gas investments.
Sofia, 26, lives in London and the ‘wild child’ ‘of the family, recently posted a message on Instagram attacking Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. Less is known about Arina, 20, and Ilya, 18, or Aaron, 11 and Leah Lou, 7, who were both born in New York to his third wife, Dasha.
Abramovich’s current location is unknown, but he has recently been in Belarus ‘trying to help’ negotiate an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine following its illegal invasion of the country.
As pressure grows to punish anyone seen having aided Putin’s regime, here is a round-up of Abramovich’s assets in Britain, as well as yachts, cars and planes that are strewn across the world.
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