Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has severed business links with Alisher Usmanov in an an attempt to put more distance between the club and the sanctioned billionaire.
The Telegraph report that Moshiri stepped down from the board of USM, a Russian holding company that Usmanov founded, within hours of suspending the club's multiple sponsorship ties on Thursday.
Business databases in Moscow confirmed the move on Thursday, three days after the EU sanction against Usmanov over the oligarch's 'close ties' to Vladimir Putin.
Earlier in the day Everton suspended with immediate effect all commercial and sponsorship arrangements with Russian companies following the invasion of Ukraine.