MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, the former Soviet leader, has called for wealthy Russian émigrés such as Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, to return their “plundered” wealth to their homeland.

In an interview in today’s Sunday Times News Review, Gorbachev backs a plan by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, for the so-called “oligarchs” to repatriate their fortunes.

Asked if this includes Abramovich, Gorbachev replied: “I do not want to undermine the motherland of soccer. And I don’t have a problem with a Russian buying shares in Britain, but it is clear we should close the book on the period of plundering.”

He added: “Some think $1 trillion has been hidden by Russian businessmen. If they don’t return that, our courts are likely to decide they acquired it illegally. Then they couldn’t use that money anywhere.”

Gorbachev, who is marking 20 years since he came to power and introduced the liberalising policies of perestroika and glasnost to the Soviet Union, claims Russia has more dollar millionaires than any country except America and that much of this money has flowed abroad, with a large share going to Britain.

Under Putin’s plan, which Gorbachev recognises is “risky”, those who made fortunes from the privatisation of Soviet state-owned industries will be allowed to keep their windfalls as long as they bring them back to Russia. Tax, said Gorbachev, would be “low”.

Abramovich, who is second in The Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £7.5 billion, made most of his wealth by buying much of the old state-owned oil industry in Siberia.

Gorbachev declared himself amazed that Russian money dominates London. “One day all you will see in the centre of London is Russians,” he joked. “They are buying up entire blocks.”

Gorbachev also disclosed a remarkable friendship with the late Pope John Paul II, who the then Soviet leader saw initially as an “opponent” for supporting the Solidarity movement in Poland.

“When I met him in 1989 we had a very good talk that started a dialogue that only finished with his death,” said Gorbachev. “Before his death he told me we need a new world order that is more stable, just and humane. To me the pope was the great humanist.”

Gorbachev, 74, who is due to visit London later this year to deliver a lecture on leadership, also declared himself a “Blairite”, but said the British people had given Tony Blair a warning at the general election that they want him to rule in a more “sovereign” way, less influenced by America.

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