Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ordered authorities to seize the aircraft to enable an investigation into its connection with billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler. As a result, a private jet has been impounded at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire as authorities investigate its connection with a billionaire Russian oligarch. The tycoon is a friend of Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC who is in the process of selling the club. It comes as the UK announced new sanctions on Russian aircraft.
The move came into action when the government tightened its sanctions on Vladimir Putin by making it a criminal offense for any Russian aircraft to enter UK airspace. Transport minister Grant Shapps said one aircraft had already been impounded at Farnborough Airport in southern England while further investigations were carried out.
A British government source said the private jet was linked to Eugene Shvidler, a billionaire business associate of Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea soccer club. Shvidler could not immediately be reached for comment. “We know that it isn’t a Russian company that holds the aircraft, it’s rather a Luxembourg-registered aircraft. We are carrying out further checks before releasing it,” Shapps told LBC radio.
Announcing the new measures, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the changes would inflict further “economic pain on Russia and those close to the Kremlin”. She added the government would continue to support Ukraine and “work to isolate Russia on the international stage”.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK was “one of the first countries to ban Russian aircraft and today we are going even further by making it a criminal offense for Russian aircraft to operate in UK airspace”. “We will always work to deny (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his cronies the right to continue as normal while innocent Ukrainians suffer.”
In a letter to all UK airports and airfields, Mr. Shapps laid out the new rules and said air traffic control had the power to tell pilots on Russian planes – private or commercial – not to enter UK airspace, or to leave it by a designated route. The new law gives authorities the power to seize Russian-owned and Russian-chartered planes. It also gives the government the autonomy to remove aircraft belonging to designated Russian individuals and entities from the UK aircraft register. The new sanctions will also prevent aviation and space-related exports including insurance and reinsurance. Furthermore, this will mean that the cover is withdrawn on existing policies and British-based insurers and reinsurers will be unable to pay claims on existing policies in these sectors.
