Alisher Usmanov (pictured) attends the UEFA Champions League Round-of-16 first-leg football match between Arsenal and Bayern Munich at The Emirates Stadium on February 19, 2014 in London, England. 

BRUSSELS / LONDON / LIVERPOOL - Alisher Usmanov, the former shareholder of Arsenal and current influential investor at Everton, has had assets frozen by the European Union due to his "particularly close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin".

Sanctions announced on Monday night include a "prohibition from making funds available" and an EU travel ban. The move by the EU Council comes a week after Margaret Hodge, the veteran Labour MP, had told the House of Commons that current UK sanctions against Russia were “too narrow”. 

She included both Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, on a list she suggested "would escape".

It is unclear whether Everton might be affected by the EU sanctions. 

Usmanov sold his 30 per cent stake in Arsenal in 2018 but has stopped short of formalising recent investment at Goodison Park through any kind of shareholding in the club. 

Instead he has a £30million first-refusal agreement in place for the naming rights at the new Bramley-Moor Dock stadium. The Russian billionaire, who has close ties with owner Farhad Moshiri, also sponsors the club’s Finch Farm training complex in a deal worth £6m. MegaFon, a company of which Usmanov is the majority shareholder, sponsor Everton women.

Unlike Abramovich, Usmanov has previously welcomed any links with Putin.  "I am proud that I know Putin, and the fact that everybody does not like him is not Putin's problem," he said in a 2010 interview with Forbes. "I don't think the world loved Truman after Nagasaki."  

Usmanov was cited by the EU for "actively supported materially or financially Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine".

In announcing the sanction, the EU Council said: "Alisher Usmanov is a pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin".

Usmanov, 68, a Uzbek-born Russian oligarch who remains a business associate of Moshiri,  was among "26 persons" who had been added to a list of those subject to sanctions.

Measures had been taken against those individuals "in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine".

USM’s naming rights agreement with Everton began in 2017 for the training ground, but expires this year.

Last week Manchester United ditched Aeroflot as a sponsor within hours of the Russian airline being sanctioned in the UK. Given the precedent, it is increasingly inevitable that Everton will at least make a public statement about its deals with Usmanov on Monday.

It will not sit well with Evertonians that sanctions against Usmanov by the EU Council come just two days after their Ukrainian player Vitaly Mykolenko tearfully embraced his compatriot Oleksandr Zinchenko, of Manchester City, ahead of kick-off at Goodison Park.