Russian-Jewish billionaire, Roman Abramovich, the owners of British Chelsea a Premier League soccer club is expected to land today (Thursday) in Israel and apparently complete the process of immigration.
Israel Hayom reported that Abramovich decided to make an Aliya (immigrate) after the British immigration authorities refuse to renew his visa. His previous one expired in April. Abramovich is currently building a skyscraper in Tel-Aviv’s old neighborhood, Neve Tzedek. He often visits Israel several times a year. He is also a trustee of the Moscow Jewish Museum, and he donates money to the Chabad movement.
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In April 2015, Abramovich had invested $25 million in the Varsano Hotel in Neve Tzedek. He has also purchased a 0.3-acre plot of land next to the hotel. This has been his first and only real estate purchase in Israel.
His holdings in 13 businesses worth a combined £4 billion ($10.8 billion according to Forbes) making him the 11th-richest person in Russia, the 13 richest man in Britain, and the 140th-richest person in the world.
He first sold in 2005 the Sibneft oil operation to Gazprom for £7.5 billion, after buying it for only £120 million a decade earlier.
Abramovich (51) has donated more money than any other Russian oligarch. Between the years 1999 and 2013, he gave away more than $2.5 billion in Chukotka to building hospitals, schools, and infrastructure.
Abramovich holds a number of companies, including investment company Millhouse LLC, Abraz (coal and steel mining) and norenicel (nickel, palladium and smelting).
In 2003 Abramovich acquired the Chelsea FC team and led it to the top of English and European football, with the peak in 2012 winning the Champions League.
The Russian oligarch tends to contribute to the Israel, when he recently transferred NIS70 million for the construction of a particle accelerator at the Sheba Medical Center.
Abramovich has been married three times.
Between 1987-1990, he was married to Olga Yurevna Lysova. Between 1991-2007 he was married to a former Russian Aeroflot stewardess, Irina Vyacheslavovna Malandina and they have five children: Ilya, Arina, Sofia, Arkadiy and Anna. Abramovich married Dasha Zhukova in 2008, and they have two children: Aaron Alexander, and Leah Lou.
