Roman Abramovich the oligarch, who owns Chelsea Football Club was unable to attend the FA cup in the UK on Saturday 19th May 2018. He is being forced to apply for a new investment visa after letting his previous one expire. Chris Hutchins, a biographer of Putin, describes the relationship between the Russian president and Abramovich as like that between a father and a favourite son. Within the Kremlin, Abramovich is referred to as “Mr A”.
Abramovich was the first person to originally recommend to Yeltsin that Vladimir Putin be his successor as the Russian president. When Putin formed his first cabinet as Prime Minister in 1999, Abramovich interviewed each of the candidates for cabinet positions before they were approved. Subsequently, Abramovich would remain one of Putin’s closest confidants. In 2007, Putin consulted in meetings with Abramovich on the question of who should be his successor as president; Medvedev was personally recommended by Abramovich.