President Putin and Roman Abramovich leaves the hot seat at Chelsea.
We all know where we are in the world. So this is how it goes. We've had two years of the most disastrous, medical virus since perhaps the beginning of the 20th century and now we've been lumbered with yet another war. It all seemed to be going swimmingly well until March 2020 and that was the fatal tipping point for civilisation. Almost two years down the line a national rehabilitation is well under way and the public here in Britain are feeling much better and far more optimistic than they must have been at this time last year. Everything is opening up again, the masks have all but gone and then another obstacle has confronted us again.
The now distressingly escalating conflict in the Ukraine is slowly spiralling out of control. Russia, that grizzly, irascible bear who keeps complaining about a headache and can never, seemingly, crack into a smile are becoming more and more objectionable. This could be because nothing has been the same since Communism was a young child and party politics was all about the tyrannical rule of Lenin and Stalin. Now things have got progressively worse and in the last week or so, hellishly intolerable.
The current President of Russia is one Vladimir Putin, widely regarded as a playground bully who just wants to beat up the gang who may have been giving him too much trouble and grief and has now lost it. Putin's CV doesn't make for pleasant reading nor is it particularly edifying. He doesn't like homosexuals, disapproves of anybody who refuses to listen to him and then savagely kills them in their hundreds and, quite possibly, thousands. He is a murderer, a violent and aggressive individual who just does what he pleases without apologising for his actions at any time.
For the last week poor Ukraine have been target practice for Putin's ruthless killing machine. Here is a man possessed, a man quite obviously hell bent on world domination. Ring any bells for you. Adolf Hitler of course was far more cunning and viciously premeditated in 1933. He seemed to give the whole world advance warning of his ghastly and despicable intentions and then invaded before flattening Poland at the start of the Second World War. The rest of course is well documented history.
Now the bombs are raining down on Kyiv in Ukraine and families are running for their lives, squeezing as many of their children onto packed trains that they hope will take them to the land of safety and security. It has to be the most horrific sight any of us have ever seen. Mothers scream at the top of their voices, petrified and fearing for their own lives. Meanwhile Putin continues to regard the scene with much amusement and hilarity. As far as he's concerned Ukraine should have been wiped off the face of the globe ages ago.
Now here we are at a critical point. Putin has moved his tanks and fighting ammunition deep into Ukranian territory while a rumbling, thunderous cacophony of Russian soldiers with thudding boots on the ground inch ever closer. It is all ugly, grotesquely unacceptable and the kind of abomination we thought we'd seen the back of 77 years ago. But then the plot thickens and attention turns back to West London where a certain Roman Abramovich, the now former owner of Chelsea, once ruled with a rod of iron.
The truth, as we know, is that both Putin and Abramovich, were best pals with each other, constantly on the phone, always talking, probably sharing Abramovich's yacht with a powerful glass of vodka or two. And this is where the suspicions lie. Russia have already been dropped from the Eurovision Song Contest, the Russian motor racing Grand Prix later on this year has been cancelled and, quite obviously, lost any connection with the football World Cup at the end of this year. The chances are that they may still be allowed to take part in the World Cup but only as long as they call themselves anything but Russia. The sins have been committed and there's no damage limitation. Russia has now crossed every moral line.
So after much heart wrenching deliberation, Abramovich, with the heaviest of hearts, has now handed over the keys of power to Chelsea's commendable charitable foundation. Chelsea, for their part, are probably shell shocked and psychologically dumbfounded by the alarming speed of events in Ukraine. As a club they will move on and have always done so. During the 1980s Chelsea had to ride out the threat of bankruptcy and insolvency. Then Ken Bates, their former chairman, bailed them out of trouble with a quid that would change the course of the club's history for ever more. We all know what happened next. Chelsea hit the big time and big money.
Yesterday Chelsea were beaten by Liverpool on penalties in the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. In many ways this could be considered as one of the worst weeks of Chelsea's season. Their Russian chairman decides to take a hike and hands over ownership into the capable hands of charity. The trouble here is that Abramovich still holds the purse strings with millions and billions in his bank account. This isn't the end of the world but for Chelsea this isn't the news they were waiting for. There can be no reason for panic attacks yet but for the more dedicated Chelsea fans who have been through thick and thin, the next multi million transfer may not be as straightforward as they might have thought.
In the big, wide world, Abramovich and Putin may come to be seen as hardened convicts and partners in the most unsavoury crime. Both could be accused of being guilty as sin. Money is of course the road to ruination and the root of all evil and here we find both men playing with fire. Abramovich, because of his friendship with Putin, is very much a co-conspirator, in cahoots, singing from the same hymn sheet. Putin is a tin pot dictator and Abramovich is just the rich kid who doesn't quite know how to handle his boundless wealth. It's unseemly, frighteningly reprehensible and almost without precedent.
Chelsea will see out the rest of the Premier League season but are realistically out of contention for the Premier League title. Jurgen Klopp's hugely impressive Liverpool have now moved into the box seat near the top of the Premier League chasing after Manchester City like a greyhound at the old White City stadium. In all likelihood they will clinch a place in the Champions League next season sooner rather than later but this is not the way they would have liked things to pan out for them.
So here we have Abramovich and Putin, Russia's dynamic duo. The country that gave us vodka, Cossack dancers, onion shaped buildings in Moscow, elegant chandeliers in the Underground Tube train system and people with almost permanently solemn faces, is now in the dock. The eyes of the world are now firmly on Russia, a military nation on May Day and quite clearly figures of hate. We must hope that Putin will get his comeuppance in a draughty prison cell for the rest of his life and Abramovich will just keep counting his obscene millions. It's not the ideal scenario but we'll be keeping tabs on this story. It could run for quite a while.
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