Chelsea owner and billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich has added Portuguese citizenship to his list of passports, thanks to his family's Sephardi history. 

The Russian oligarch’s spokesperson confirmed over the weekend that Mr. Abramovich had successfully secured his EU citizenship earlier this year. He’s believed to have taken advantage of a Portuguese law that gives naturalisation rights to Jews that were hounded out of both Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition of the late 1400s.

The law was passed in 2015, and thousands of Sephardi Jews are believed to have made their applications for citizenship. A similar scheme in Spain ended in 2019. Potential applicants are vetted by genealogists to confirm their Sephardi history. 

 Mr. Abramovich has previously spoken of his decision not to pursue a UK visa after sanctions and rule changes for Russians in the UK following the 2018 Salisbury poisoning incident.

 Mr. Abramovich’s obtaining of a Portugese passport follows his successful bid for Israeli citizenship in 2018, that allowed him to visit the UK without the need for a visa.