Where has Roman Abramovich been?

All these unanswered questions have fed the doubts about the owner's intentions. His failure to attend key games was noticed, too, in Moscow, but a generally less sinister interpretation is offered. "It's more simple - he's in love, it's spring," claimed one Russian journalist who covers Chelsea. "He wanted some time with his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova and why shouldn't he? There's no way he's fallen out with Chelsea and you shouldn't measure his commitment by his time in the stadium."

Yet there are fears his new found love of art, buying two paintings by Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon for £61million, inspired by Zhukova, is a sign that he has discovered an interest that might one day eclipse Chelsea.

But there are other reasons, too, why it may have been expedient for Abramovich to absent himself from Chelsea at this time. His business empire is changing: he was recently exploring deepest Africa, and also to the furthest reaches of Siberia.

And while his purchase of Chelsea in 2003 for £140million could be seen as a clear signal he was moving his billions - and his life - out of Russia, there is no doubt the booming economy in his homeland now affords investment opportunities which are hard to ignore. Moscow is once again his main base.

The other reason is political. Much of his absence coincided with changes at the Kremlin that preceded former president Vladimir Putin's handover to his close friend and ally Dmitry Medvedev.

While Abramovich's only formal role in his country's government is as governor of the snow-swept region of Chukotka, his real position is assumed to be rather more powerful.

When Putin first arrived in the Kremlin eight years ago, it was alleged that Abramovich played a role vetting his ministers. More recently, a court case in London has heard that Abramovich remains a close insider.

True or not, all the top businessmen in Russia have an acute interest in the minutiae of government personnel changes and it may have been this that detained him. The fate of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky serves as warning to them all.

Of his absence from football, Abramovich's spokesman John Mann said: "It is simple. He's been busy doing political things and business. Nothing more than that."

Or as a source close to the oligarch put it: "His business life, political life and indeed private life are international but focused on Moscow these days. He cannot devote as much time to Chelsea, which does not mean he doesn't want to."

Against this, though, sceptics point to a lingering feeling that his career has shown passions for certain businesses - such as oil, metals, ice hockey - which have later waned. Is football the latest to be sidelined?

The test for fans will perhaps be in the management and playing team Chelsea assemble for the next campaign, win or lose in Moscow tomorrow night.