So this is an interesting little tidbit I heard from a tour guide yesterday, kind of surprised it was never a bigger deal than it is but the tour guide also said he heard rumours Roman was actively paying out the ass to bury this story as much as possible:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60724509.amp
TLDR;
- it usually takes between 2-5 years to get Portuguese citizenship (ironically my wife just got hers and even being on top of everything from start to finish it was just over 2 years)
- Portugal passed a law in the last few years descendants of Jews who were exiled from Portugal under the dictatorship could apply for residency
- when Russia began to fall apart Roman Abramovich applied under this new law
- Roman Abramovich was granted a Portuguese passport in just over 2 weeks
What makes it a bigger deal is kind of what I said in a previous post above. The Portuguese passport is one of the strongest in the world. If he was only a Russian citizen he’d basically be handcuffed both personally and business wise. Now that he not only holds an EU passport, but a Portuguese one specifically, he has opened up infinite opportunities for himself. Obviously illegitimately