Tycoon Abramovich builds Russian "Chelsea village" on Cyprus.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, also owner of the Chelsea football club, is building a 225-villa "Chelsea village" worth $30 million in north Cyprus for wealthy Russians, a Turkish business paper said.

Referans said Abramovich began showing interest in the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus three years ago. Last year, he bought a land plot in Arapkoy for $5 million and began building a cottage village there. The project is to be completed by the end of 2007.

The Turkish paper said in 2005 he bought the posh Istanbul Safisa Hotel in Antalya, which will be inaugurated later this year.

The Turkish press also said Abramovich has bought an unfinished hotel, the Keyland, in Marmaris, and is interested in a land plot in the resort town of Kushadasy, on the Aegean Sea, which he is ready to buy for $350 million.

He is also reported to be planning the acquisition a villa in the Bosporus Strait.

(RIA Novosti)