Sanctioned Russian oligarch asks if he can still have a cleaner and driver

A sanctioned Russian oligarch being kicked out of the UK asked if he could have a cleaner and driver - despite the atrocities of Russia's war against Ukraine.

Petr Aven, the billionaire businessman and politician who is allegedly good friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that he and his family "don't understand how to survive" in the world on their own.

Aven, who lives in central London, is worried that he will never be allowed to come back into Britain after the sanctions imposed by the West.

He had his assets and bank account frozen across Europe and the UK after Russia's callous invasion of Ukraine last month.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the oligarch spoke about how business is "completely destroyed" and that everything that was built over "30 years" is "ruined" all before he asked for privileges.

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"Will l be allowed to have a cleaner or a driver? I don't drive a car... maybe my stepdaughter will drive. We don't understand how to survive."

Aven's wife had spent days frequenting cash machines in the capital and taking out money as other oligarchs were being sanctioned.

The EU were the first to hit Aven with sanctions, which the UK swiftly followed with his bank account and assets being frozen.

He was accused of being a crony for Putin as director of the Russian bank Alfa-Bank.

"Aven is a prominent Russian businessman and pro-Kremlin oligarch," said the UK's office of financial sanctions implementation.

Aven has said that his life did a 180 overnight, claiming it left him unsure as to how he could pay for bills. He has less than three weeks to leave Britain.

Reportedly, he has Latvian and Russian passports and even a US visa. However, he wants to remain in the UK, owning the Ingliston House in Virginia Water, Surrey.

The tycoon made his money with the fallout of the breakdown of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

He and his business partner Mikhail Fridman also launched a banking giant in Russia through their Alfa Group.

They also made huge lumps of cash out of oil investments during the decade. They even joined with BP in 2003.

Elsewhere, MailOnline.com said that Aven continues to reject and wants to fight the sanctions against him as he claims to be struggling to find a British lawyer to assist him.

He also claimed that he wasn't close to the Kremlin, although conceding to do business in Russia meant having some contact with the president.

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