Berezovsky Wins Duels With Fridman - and Russia

President Putin's notorious use of Russian underworld slang in August 1999, when he said that Chechen terrorists would be "wasted" (zamochin) wherever they were found - even on the toilet - was raised in evidence before the Jury in Boris Berezovsky's libel case against Mikhail Fridman, Chairman of the Russian Alfa Bank. Mr Fridman claimed that the word, although vulgar, was widely used amongst Russian businessmen to denote nothing more than commercial pressure. Not so, maintained Mr Berezovsky, who had been surprised by Putin's use of the word. As Mr Justice Eady, the trial Judge, asked Mr Fridman - "When Mr Putin used it in relation to the Chechens, it plainly would not mean commercial pressure there, would it?"

In a popular Russian television programme, "To the Barrier" (a Russian expression for a challenge to a duel) Mr Fridman had accused Mr Berezovsky of threatening him, and others. On 26 May 2006, the Jury decided that the allegation was defamatory, rejected the defence that the allegation was true, and awarded Mr Berezovsky libel damages of £50,000.

Meanwhile, on 1 June 2006, Senior District Judge Timothy Workman at Bow Street Magistrates Court denied permission for extradition proceedings to be brought at the request of the Russian government against Mr Berezovsky. The Judge held that since Mr Berezovsky has the benefit of political asylum in the UK, under the provisions of the Geneva Convention, he could not be returned to Russia.

In the latest extradition request from the Russian government, Mr Berezovsky was accused of planning a coup d'etat, after he had described the Putin regime as unconstitutional and predicted that it would fall under pressure from the Russian people.

Get Carter-Ruck
Summer 2006