Alisher Usmanov has been sanctioned over alleged ties with Vladimir Putin.
Usmanov was one of several oligarchs named by the European Union in attempts impose restrictions on Russia for its military invasion of Ukraine.
The Uzbekistan-born billionaire is aligned to Everton since his USM Holdings company became naming rights sponsor of their Finch Farm training base.
USM also struck a £30m deal to have the option to match the naming rights for the club’s evolving new waterfront stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Mobile phone operator MegaFon, one of USM’s subsidiaries, also sponsor the Blues’ women’s team and has branding outside and within Goodison Park.
Separately, Usmanov is an associate of Farhad Moshiri, who sold shares in Arsenal to him in order to become Everton’s majority shareholder in 2016.
But the 68-year-old was listed as one of 26 individuals added to Russia’s sanctions list compiled by the EU as the military assault on Ukraine deepens.
The European Council described Usmanov as a ‘pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties’ to Putin in an update to its Official Journal regulations.
It continued that he had been referred to as one of the Russian premier’s “favourite oligarchs” who was ‘entrusted with servicing financial flows’.
They concluded Usmanov “actively supported materially or financially Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine” and “actively supported the Russian government’s policies of destabilisation of Ukraine.”
Despite the EU’s latest declaration, the UK government has yet to announce any plans to impose sanctions against oligarchs based in the country.