Two Roman Abramovich associates hit with largest assets freeze in UK history

Eugene Tenenbaum and David Davidovich bring total number of oligarchs and their affiliates under sanction to 106

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, right, and director Eugene Tenenbaum celebrate a goal in 2012. Reuters

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The UK government on Thursday announced it had imposed sanctions on two more Russian oligarchs and long-standing business associates of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Assets worth up to £10 billion ($13bn) belonging to Eugene Tenenbaum and David Davidovich have been frozen. In addition, a travel ban has been placed on Mr Davidovich.

The freeze is the largest in UK history and brings the total number of oligarchs, family members and associates financially penalised by the UK government to 106 since February, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Eugene Tenenbaum has described himself as one of Mr Abramovich’s closest business associates. Corporate filings show that he took control of Evrington Investments Limited, an Abramovich-linked investment company, on February 24, immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He is also a director at Chelsea Football Club.

David Davidovich has been described by Forbes as “Abramovich’s much lower profile right-hand man”, and took over Evrington Investments from Tenenbaum in March 2022.

The sanctions were co-ordinated with action taken by the Jersey authorities earlier this week to impose a formal freezing order on assets suspected to be connected to Mr Abramovich himself, valued in excess of £5bn.

“We are tightening the ratchet on Putin’s war machine and targeting the circle of people closest to the Kremlin,” said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

“We will keep going with sanctions until Putin fails in Ukraine. Nothing and no one is off the table.”