The owner of Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich is among a group of Russian oligarchs to be targeted by British intelligence as part of a sustained campaign to disrupt Vladimir Putin, The Daily Telegraph understands.
A list of six wealthy high-profile Russians has been drawn up by intelligence agencies and submitted to British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The prime minister has approved the list and the names of the oligarchs will be circulated across Whitehall departments and shared with the UK's allies in Europe and in North America in an attempt to disrupt their ability to travel and to maintain their business empires.
It signals a ratcheting up of Britain's new cold war with the Kremlin following the nerve agent attack on Salisbury in March.
"These individuals have been identified as having an extremely close professional and financial relationship with President Vladimir Putin. We believe they are involved in doing the Kremlin's bidding on a whole range of fronts, which includes using their financial muscle on behalf of the Russian state.
"Roman Abramovich is on the list because he is believed to be Mr. Putin's most important financial supporter."
The source continued: "Targeting these individuals will be an important part of the UK Government's response to the Salisbury attack."
Abramovich's spokesman declined to comment but a source said the Chelsea FC owner was emphatically not in Putin's inner circle.
The measures are thought to include an attempt to revoke visas, impose travel restrictions and target UK-based financial and property assets. It follows an announcement by the Home Office this week that it was suspending the "golden visa" scheme that allows wealthy foreigners to acquire British visas.
Well-placed sources have confirmed Abramovich is on the list along with Oleg Deripaska, who was once associated with a number of British politicians but has since been placed on a US Treasury sanctions list.
British intelligence officials say they regard Deripaska as another priority because of his alleged links to Russia's security forces. The Telegraph revealed this week that Evgeny Fokin, a former senior officer with Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, was a director with Deripaska's London-based energy company EN+, which is chaired by Lord Barker of Battle, the Conservative peer. Fokin has denied being with SVR.
"Mr. Deripaska provides the Kremlin with financial backing and is also believed to have a close relationship with Russia's intelligence services, including the GRU military intelligence unit that carried out the Salisbury nerve agent attack," said a Whitehall official.
Another name on the list is Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate who in the summer sold his 550 million pound stake in Arsenal Football Club but whose company has ties with Everton. In 2017, Usmanov launched a tirade against Putin's arch-critic Alexei Navalny, ending with the words: "I spit on you, Alexei Navalny." Navalny had accused him of corruption, a claim Usmanov strongly denies.
Usmanov declined to comment but sources close to him insisted he had no involvement in Russian politics. "He is a businessman; he is not an active supporter of politicians," said the source. Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's former judo partner, also appears on the list with his younger brother Boris.
In 2017 the EU announced new sanctions on Rotenberg after judging he had been "undermining or threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine". When Rotenberg divorced in 2015, some details of assets in the UK were made public including a mansion in Surrey and a home in London.
Igor Sechin, the energy baron known in Russian media as "Darth Vader", is the sixth man on the list. Sechin is chief executive of the oil conglomerate Rosneft and was once Putin's secretary. He has been described as Russia's most powerful oligarch.
The apparent decision to target Abramovich is the most significant, however, given his position as the highest profile Russian with such strong connections to the UK. Putting him on the list will likely throw further doubt on his continued ownership of Chelsea.
Despite owning at least three homes in London, he was barred from entering the UK after being forced to apply for a new visa when his previous one expired. Abramovich later took Israeli citizenship to circumvent the problems - no such visa is required to visit the UK by Israelis.
But a source close to Abramovich was unable to say if he had returned to the UK since then.
The concerted crackdown on the oligarchs has provoked fury in the Kremlin, which accused Western nations of "unfriendly and unscrupulous actions".
Britain's relations with Russia plunged to a new low in the wake of the nerve agent attack in Salisbury when Russia's military intelligence, on the order of Putin, attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal, 67, using Novichok nerve agent.
