Louis Flannery analyses the latest saga in the oligarch wars taking place in the English courts
As a story, the case of Berezovsky v Abramovich had everything: sex; money; politics; power; mysterious deaths; shady deals in a top London hotel; corruption; and betrayal. As a legal battle, it also had everything: billions of dollars at stake; a massive trial, stretching over the best part of six months; stellar counsel, playing at the top of their game; legal fees said to have reached over £100m in total; a judge regarded as one of the best on the bench, and widely tipped for promotion; lying witnesses; and a good old-fashioned fight between two mightily rich men. Throw in a decent mix of legal issues and you have the dream court case.
Background: the end of Communism in Russia
The story really begins in the late 1980s and 1990s: a period of extraordinary upheaval in Russian history. During this period—as Russia ceased to be part of the Soviet Union—the political system, the centralised economy and a legal framework for trade and industry were scrapped
