Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich was on Thursday hit with an assets freeze and travel ban as part of new UK government sanctions targeting seven Russian oligarchs.
Among others sanctioned are leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska, Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, the government announced.
Speculation has swirled for weeks about whether Abramovich would be included on the targeted action against Russian billionaires perceived to be close to the Kremlin.
Abramovich announced last week that he was selling Chelsea, after buying the English Premier League side in 2003, and bankrolled its successes at domestic and European level.