LONDON, (Reuters) – Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich emerged victorious yesterday from a $6 billion legal battle with his former mentor Boris Berezovsky that has laid bare the intrigue behind the post-Soviet carve-up of Russia’s vast natural resources.
Berezovsky, who became a Moscow powerbroker under the late President Boris Yeltsin only to fall foul of Vladimir Putin, had accused Abramovich of using the threat of Kremlin retribution to intimidate him into selling prized assets at a knockdown price.
But Judge Elizabeth Gloster told a packed London courtroom that she had found Berezovsky to be an “unimpressive and inherently unreliable witness” who gave sometimes dishonest evidence and would say “almost anything to support his case”.
Gloster dismissed all of Berezovsky’s $6 billion in claims in one of the biggest private litigation cases ever, saying Abramovich – the world’s 68th richest man with a $12.1 billion fortune – was a “truthful and on the whole reliable witness”.
“I am absolutely amazed about what happened today,” Berezovsky, 66, told reporters after listening expressionless as the verdict was read out in a modern, glass courtroom crowded with lawyers, bodyguards and journalists.
“My confidence in English justice has been undermined by the judge’s decision,” he said, adding that the ruling was so sympathetic to Putin that it read as if the Kremlin chief had written it himself.
