Alisher Usmanov has a reputation as a hard man of business even among Russia’s oligarchs and once acknowledged that shares were his favourite possession.

Rated Russia’s 18th richest man and worth an estimated $5.5 billion, the metals and mining mogul has shown no previous interest in football. His only prominent involvement in sport until now has been as president of the Russian and European fencing associations.

But Mr Usmanov has been building up a media empire in Russia, with Kremlin approval, and may see a stake in Arsenal as a way to boost audiences by screening matches to football-crazy fans.

Like other billionaire businessman in Moscow, nervous of a sudden turn against them by the Kremlin, he may also have concluded from Roman Abramovich’s ownership of Chelsea that a stake in a high-profile foreign club helps to protect other assets at home from official prying.

Mr Usmanov, 53, can certainly afford it because he is flush with cash and has been on something of a spending spree in recent months. He was linked in June by Russian media with a plan to take control of a third of one of Russia’s largest mobile telephone companies in a deal said to be worth $4.5 billion.

He paid $300 million for a 75 per cent stake in Muz Tv, a Russian version of MTV, to add to the 50 per cent stake he bought last November in 7TV, a sports channel. At the time, analysts suggested that he planned to convert 7TV into a business news channel, but the involvement with Arsenal suggests otherwise.

Kommersant newspaper, which he also bought last year, reported that Russia’s second-largest bank VTB advanced Mr Usmanov $2 billion loan in June, a quarter of the proceeds raised by the bank in an initial share offering.

The money was expected to go into expansion of his Gazmetall steel and mining empire. Mr Usmanov also owns half of Metalloinvest, which set out ambitious plans in June to double its value to $27 billion within four years.

He showed a sentimental streak earlier this year when he bid $3 million to buy back the international rights to Cheburashka, a cuddly children’s character from popular Soviet-era cartoons, from an American company. In a display of patriotic loyalty to the Kremlin, he planned to give the collection to a new children’s channel proposed by President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Usmanov, who is married and has two children, was born in Uzbekistan but is a Russian citizen. He is linked to the Kremlin as general director of Gazprominvestholding, the subsidiary that manages the debts of the state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom.

He has enjoyed a privileged position during Mr Putin’s presidency to the extent that he was forced to deny speculation that he had bought Kommersant, one of Russia’s most influential papers, at the Kremlin’s request.

With Mr Putin due to stand down as President in March, Mr Usmanov’s involvement with Arsenal may be an insurance policy against any unexpected downturn in relations with his successor as president.