Roman Abramovich

Roman Abramovich rose from an orphaned childhood to acquire, with Boris Berezovsky, the Sibneft oil company in the loans-for-shares era. He proved more adept than most at staying on the right side of the Kremlin, serving as elected governor of the remote Chukotka region and later selling Sibneft to the state gas firm Gazprom at a large profit. He became globally known for buying Chelsea Football Club in London. He beat Berezovsky in a bitter London lawsuit over their former partnership, and was sanctioned by Western governments after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.