Abramovich describes former chum as 'something of a megalomaniac'
Colourful court battle with fellow Russian oligarch Berezovsky forces Chelsea's quiet multibillionaire to break his silence
He is one of the most scrutinised people on the planet, famous for his yachts, extravagant lifestyle and a certain football club in west London. But for the past five years the oligarch Roman Abramovich has said nothing in public.
On Monday however, Abramovich was forced to break his long silence when he gave evidence for the first time in his colourful legal battle with Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin critic and political exile.
But those who came to the high court in London expecting to hear great insights into the billionaire's mindset, or a rousing speech in defence of his actions will have left rather disappointed.
Abramovich said little and spoke only in Russian, with the judge, Dame Elizabeth Gloster, and a packed courtroom of barristers, security guards and supporters listening to a translation via headphones.
After being sworn in, he faced a volley of preliminary questions from Berezovsky's QC Laurence Rabinovitz. He replied to all of them with a single word "Da". For most of the day his style was similarly minimalist. At one point, having failed to receive an answer, Rabinovitz prodded him politely with the words: "Could you say "Da", please." Abramovich clearly can not speak English. He complained of being unable to understand his witness statement.
Berezovsky is suing Abramovich for more than $5bn in the world's biggest private litigation battle.
Once friends, Berezovsky claims Abramovich betrayed him after he fell out with the Kremlin in 2000 and fled to Britain. He says that the Chelsea FC owner took advantage of his political difficulties with Vladimir Putin, forcing him to sell his interests in the Russian oil giant Sibnet at a knockdown price. He also says Abramovich cheated him over another deal with the Russian aluminium firm Rusal.
The case on Monday/yesterday offered a fascinating study in two contrast! ing pers onalities the pugnacious Berezovsky, the quintessential frontroom operator, vs the diffident and media-shy Abramovich, a man clearly more comfortable operating behind the scenes, or standing mutely on the football terrace. Up until now he has watched the case unfold with an expression of cheerful bemusement. Unlike his adversary, Berezovsky gave evidence in fluent if idiosyncratic English.
In exile, Berezovsky has become Putin's most prominent adversary, and a source of trouble in Britain's fraught relations with Moscow.
Abramovich, by contrast, has been a model of political loyalty, serving as governor in the frozen far eastern Russian province of Chukotka. On Monday/Yesterday he said that Berezovsky would get a fair trial in Russia, should he be extradited back there. Few believe this.
During the four-week case the High Court has often struggled to understand 1990s Russia a lawless, physically perilous place which Abramovich's star barrister Jonathan Sumption QC likened to "14th century England". The dispute dates back almost 17 years to when then president Boris Yeltsin practically gave away Russia's state-owned assets to a series of powerful oligarchs in return for their political support.
In his witness statement before he started giving evidence Abramovich denied that he had gone into business partnership with Berezovsky when Sibneft was created back in 1995. "Mr Berezovsky has already received from me more than $2.5 billion for his services, and still this is not enough for him. I am disappointed and surprised that he additionally asserts a legal claim to a significant further portion of my wealth," he said in his statement.
Instead, Abramovich says, he employed Berezovsky as a "krysha" the word means roof in Russian to further his business interests and work as a political fixer deep inside President Yeltsin's court. He argues that without this patronage it would have been impossible to succeed in the murky world of Russian business. At the time, however, the two! men wer e close. He admitted: "I felt a strong emotional bond to him."
He added: "He was first and foremost a politician. I was not his protoge and he was not my mentor ... Although I now have a high media profile, I never aspired to be a public figure. I have always been interested in real business and the development of business strategies," Abramovich said in his statement. Of Berezovsky he adds damningly: "There was at times something of the megalomaniac about him." He also describes him as "detached from reality".
The two men met for the first time in 1994 on a Caribbean yacht. At that point Abramovich was a trader in oil products, keen to muscle into the lucrative opportunities offered by Russia's dubious privatization programme. He conceded that Berezovsky was already a well-known figure, with influence in high places.
Abramovich said of himself, by contrast: "I created little noise."
Asked whether he was a details person, he said: "I think to a greater extent than Boris Berezovsky, but not much either."
The two co-operated closely during the Yeltsin years, But in his witness statement Abramovich is scathing about Berezovsky's fall from favour once Vladimir Putin took power. Putin became Russian president in 2000, partly due to Berezovsky's enthusiastic support. Within months, however, Berezovsky had had a "series of serious disputes with Putin", Abramovich says leading to Berezovsky's decision to fly to Britain and into exile that October.
"His time had passed. His period in Russia's post-communist history was over. Russia had moved on. I had moved on," Abramovich said bluntly in his statement. Nevertheless Berezovsky still treated Abramovich as a "cash cow", he said, and expected regular multi-million payments even though the "krysha" arrangement was now defunct.
Abramovich also said he picked up the tab for Berezovsky's private jet flights, his chateau in France, and jewellery for Berezovsky's then girlfriend and now partner, Elena Gorbunova.
Berezovsky! turned up in court yesterday wearing a red poppy, a further symbol of how after more than a decade in London he has integrated into British society. During the lunchbreak he munched on a plate of sushi, laid on just opposite the courtroom on the third floor of London's new Rolls building, built to hear high-profile commercial cases. Abramovich, by contrast, still has the air of an outsider. At times he had to ask for questions to be repeated after they apparently got lost in translation. He insists in his witness statement that he is "domiciled" in Russia, not Britain, adding that his row with Berezovsky is a "uniquely Russian story."
The destinies of the two feuding oligarchs offer their own eloquent commentary on Russia under Putin. By 2000 Abramovich said in his statement that he and Berezovsky "were growing increasingly apart in our views". By the summer Berezovsky had ceased to have any political influence with the Russian government, he remarks. Abramovich, by contrast, admits that he welcomed Putin's new rules, set out in a meeting with the oligarchs. Putin's message was: obey the state and steer clear of politics.
Abramovich recalled: "President Putin made it clear that he would support business to develop Russia's economy. In return for his support and business certainty, we needed to contribute taxes and act responsibly and transparently."
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