Chelsea’s Abramovich ‘blackmailed Berezovsky’

Mr Abramovich, above right, faced his accuser Boris Berezovsky, above left, at the commercial court in London today.

Mr Berezovsky, who left Russia for Britain in 2000 after falling out with the Kremlin, alleges Mr Abramovich “intimidated” him into selling his stake in the Russian oil company Sibneft at a fraction of its true value. He is suing for breach of trust and breach of contract and is claiming more than £3m in damages from Mr Abramovich.

His barrister Laurence Rabinowitz told the court: “This is a case about two men who, and this is common ground, worked together to acquire an asset, that is Sibneft, that would make them wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most people.

“In the process, we say, (they) became and remained good friends until, that is, Mr Berezovsky, who had adopted a high political profile in Russia, not least through his control of certain media outlets, fell out with those in power in the Kremlin and was forced to leave his home and create a new life abroad.”

Wealth and influence mattered more than friendship and loyalty. Barrister Laurence Rabinowitz

Mr Rabinowitz said Mr Abramovich had been put in a difficult position when Mr Berezovsky left Russia. “He was in effect required to make a choice: to remain loyal to Mr Berezovsky, his friend and mentor and the person to whom he owed his newly acquired great fortune, or instead, as we submit, to betray Mr Berezovsky and to seek to profit from his difficulties.

“It is our case that Mr Abramovich at that point demonstrated that he was a man to whom wealth and influence mattered more than friendship and loyalty and this has led him, finally, to go so far as to even deny that he and Mr Berezovsky were actually ever friends.”

‘Intimidated into selling’

Mr Rabinowitz continued: “Mr Berezovsky’s case in relation to Sibneft is that Mr Abramovich intimidated him into selling his very substantial interest in Sibneft to Mr Abramovich himself at a very substantial under value and that he did so in effect by making threats.

“The threats being… that unless Mr Berezovsky… sold those interests to him, he, Mr Abramovich, would take steps with a view to the interest being effectively removed from them by those in the Kremlin, led by President Putin, who had come to regard Mr Berezovsky as his enemy.”

Mr Rabinowitz said Mr Abramovich had also threatened to “take steps with a view to preventing” the release from prison of a close friend of Mr Berezovsky. Mr Berezovsky alleged that as a result of “this intimidation”, he was pressured into selling his Sibneft stake to Mr Abramovich for “very substantially less” than it was worth.

Mr Rabinowitz said the two men’s friendship had come to a “bitter and conclusive end”, adding: “On Mr Berezovsky’s case… it was because he was betrayed and because he was blackmailed by someone who had been his friend and partner.”

Mr Abramovich and Mr Berezovsky sat at either end of the packed courtroom. The case is expected to last more than two months.