Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered Russian state media to cancel all mentions of Roman Abramovich from their coverage of Ukraine peace negotiations.
The Chelsea FC owner will be written out of TV and news reports after it was claimed earlier this week that he had suffered suspected poisoning during a peace talk meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, it is claimed.The decision to blank Abramovich, who is allegedly linked to Putin, 69, has been revealed by leading opposition politician and journalist Ksenia Sobchak.
It is common practice for such orders to be issued from the Kremlin to the compliant state media. "The pro-Kremlin media were forbidden to mention the role of businessman Roman Abramovich in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine," said Sobchak's Telegram channel. "This information was confirmed to our editorial office on condition of anonymity by representatives of Moskva-24, TASS and another major pro-government telegram channel. "One of the sources said that on March 30, the following order came from the authorities: 'We no longer mention that Abramovich is participating in the negotiations'."Naming of the tycoon, 55, appeared to stop on state media outlets around 1pm Moscow time on Tuesday.
Abramovich - whose maternal grandparents were from Kyiv - was supposedly involved in Tuesday's peace talks in Istanbul to end the war.Has Abramovich been unfairly treated?
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