Chelsea Football Club Owner Roman Abramovich, who Forbes estimates to be the 139th wealthiest person (£7 billion, $9.1 billion) in the entire world, is separating from his wife Dasha Zhukova. The pair maintain that this is a very amicable parting of ways and they plan on continuing to work together in the art world. Zhukova, 36, is an art collector, who resides on the board of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“After 10 years together, the two of us have made the difficult decision to separate, but we remain close friends, parents, and partners in the projects we developed together,” said a joint statement released by the couple on Monday.
According to The Guardian: “a spokesman for Abramovich, 50, declined to comment further, or to say whether the couple planned a formal divorce.”
The couple were together for ten years, and have two kids. The Abramovich-Zhukova statement adds that the couple will “continue to work together as co-founders of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and the New Holland Island cultural centre in Saint Petersburg.”
Zhukova is the third wife of the Russian oligarch, a fiercely private individual who is extremely connected to the highest of levels of government in both the United States and Russia. Abramovich is very tight with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kushner has been hailed as the true architect of the Trump presidential campaign success, and he literally is as close as you can possibly get to the president. Roman Abramovich was recently in Colorado on the same exact day as Kushner and his family.
Additionally, Jared’s wife and Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump is very close friends with Zhukova. At the Presidential inauguration in January, Zhukova was Ivanka and Jared’s guest of honor.
Bianna Golodryga, Yahoo! News and Finance Anchor, said this during a guest appearance on the 11th Hour with Brian Williams in May:
“We know that Jared has been close with other Russian billionaires and oligarchs. Roman Abramovich is one of his best friends. His wife, in fact was Jared and Ivanka’s guest at the inauguration. Unlike in the U.S. and with businessman in the U.S. every single oligarch in Russia has connection to one person, and that’s Vladimir Putin.”
Finally, and this could just be a coincidence and nothing more, but it’s definitely worth noting- a private plane owned by Roman Abramovich arrived in New Jersey on the same exact day that Trump arrived in the state to begin his 17 day vacation. This coincidence occurred just this past week. Abramovich is the second member of the Trump family inner circle to separate from his wife in as many weeks. Recently ousted White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, saw his wife leave him just as The Mooch was set to take over for the departed Sean Spicer.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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