{"id":118869,"date":"2021-07-28T13:08:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=118869"},"modified":"2021-07-28T13:08:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:08:51","slug":"russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia's Abramovich didn't buy Chelsea for Putin, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (Reuters) -Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is not President Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u201ccashier\u201d and nor did he buy Chelsea FC as a vehicle to corrupt the West, his lawyer told England\u2019s High Court in a defamation hearing over a book about Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>

FILE PHOTO: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich watches the players do a lap of honour after their English Premier League soccer match against Blackburn Rovers at Stamford Bridge in London May 13, 2012. REUTERS\/Eddie Keogh<\/figcaption>

In the 2020 book, British journalist Catherine Belton chronicles Putin\u2019s rise to power and how many of his associates from the former Soviet spy services rose to positions of wealth and influence after he won the top Kremlin job in 1999.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for Abramovich told the court that passages in the book \u201cPutin\u2019s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West\u201d, published by HarperCollins, were clearly defamatory. Abramovich is suing both HarperCollins and Belton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe claimant is described in the book as Putin\u2019s cashier and the custodian of Kremlin slush funds,\u201d Hugh Tomlinson, a lawyer for Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, told the High Court about the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is said to be happening is that Mr Abramovich is making his wealth available to Putin… secretly to Putin and his cronies – that is the view the reasonable and ordinary reader would take,\u201d Tomlinson said of Belton\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

HarperCollins has said it would \u201crobustly defend this acclaimed and ground-breaking book and the right to report on matters of considerable public interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Belton is a former Financial Times Moscow correspondent and now a Reuters special correspondent. Belton, who attended the hearing, declined to comment. Law firm Wiggin is representing HarperCollins.<\/p>

Slideshow ( 3 images )<\/span><\/figcaption>

ROSNEFT<\/h2>\n

Tomlinson said Belton\u2019s book relied on what he cast as \u201cunreliable\u201d sources such as Sergei Pugachev, a Russian businessman who later fell foul of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

He said the book alleged that Putin ordered Abramovich to purchase Chelsea soccer club as \u201cpart of a scheme to corrupt the West\u201d and to \u201cbuild a bulkhead of Russian influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ordinary and reasonable reader would inevitably come out with the view that Roman Abramovich was instructed to buy Chelsea… so he was being used as the acceptable face of a corrupt and dangerous regime,\u201d Tominlinson said.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Rosneft, Russia\u2019s biggest oil company, said in documents submitted to court that they took issue with passages in the book which said the company expropriated the YUKOS oil company and purchased the assets at a rigged auction.<\/p>\n

Rosneft\u2019s lawyers argued that the book alleged that Rosneft used Russia to engage in \u201corganised theft\u201d of Yukos, once Russia\u2019s biggest oil company which was carved up and sold off after owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell foul of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Russia, \u201cwith the connivance of several judges subjected to improper pressure, illicitly expropriated assets formerly held by OAO Yukos Oil Company (\u201cYukos\u201d) and its ultimate owners,\u201d Rosneft said of one of the book\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd combined with Rosneft to allow the latter to purchase the Yukos assets at an unfair price in a farcically rigged auction,\u201d Rosneft\u2019s lawyers said of the book\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

Rosneft and CEO Igor Sechin did not respond to written requests for comment on the case when contacted by Reuters.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Rosneft took issue with passages in the book which claimed that Sechin was behind the attack on Yukos.<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON (Reuters) -Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is not President Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u201ccashier\u201d and nor did he buy Chelsea FC as a vehicle to corrupt the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":118868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussia's Abramovich didn't buy Chelsea for Putin, court hears - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia's Abramovich didn't buy Chelsea for Putin, court hears - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LONDON (Reuters) -Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is not President Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u201ccashier\u201d and nor did he buy Chelsea FC as a vehicle to corrupt the [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-28T13:08:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Russias-Abramovich-didnt-buy-Chelsea-for-Putin-court-hears.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears\/\",\"name\":\"Russia's Abramovich didn't buy Chelsea for Putin, court hears - 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