The reasons behind Abramovich's trip to Turkey
Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich arrived in the country this week, potentially to sell the club, but also as a negotiating party in the Russia-Ukraine war.
It has come to light that Roman Abramovich's private jet landed in Turkey on Wednesday. The Daily Mail reports that the under pressure Russian tycoon is reportedly in talks with Turkish billionaire Mushin Bayrak to sell Chelsea to him.
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Why Abramovich went to Turkey
After the controversy generated by his links with Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich wants to sell the Stamford Bridge club for a figure of over four billion dollars. The money, he said, will go to the Ukrainian victims of the conflict, although he did not specify who he sees as the victims and has yet to condemn Putin's actions.
The Chelsea owner also said that he would not reclaim the loans owed to him over the last two decades, which amount to over two billion dollars. So his most immediate intention is to get rid of the Blues, and Bayrak appears to be the main candidate.
Abramovich's Gulfstream G650ER jet, valued at around 60 million dollars, landed in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday. In the picture above you can see his super yacht Solaris at Barcelona's Port in Spain on 3 March. For his part, Bayrak, with a fortune estimated north of ten billion dollars, admitted that he would be travelling to London soon.
Turkey in the eye of the storm
Abramovich has travelled to the Turkish city this week, but he is not the only Russian personality who could visit the country these days, as their president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has offered to host the latest negotiating talks between Russia and Ukraine, aiming to resolve the conflict.