Roman Abramovich, we never knew you till now

ROMAN ABRAMOVICH, the most celebrated of London's billionaire Russian oligarchs as the owner of Chelsea football club, spoke yesterday in public for the first recorded time in five years.

He was in the witness box in the High Court, summoned by his rival Boris Berezovsky, 65, who is suing him for £6.5 billion on claims that he blackmailed him into selling for a fraction of its worth his share of the oil conglomerate Sibneft they had built from the ruins of the Soviet empire.

At least nobody died. Abramovich, 45, explained that Berezovsky was never a business partner but a "mentor" to whom he paid £2 billion for "Krysha", which is Russian for "roof" and translates as protection against political ill-winds from the Kremlin and gangsters, particular gangsters from Chechnya.

As The Guardian reports, mostly what Abramovich said in court was "da", which means "yes". But even that was revealing, suggesting that despite his years in London he has failed to learn the local lingo.

He wore headphones for simultaneous translation along with a Chelsea blue tie and a stubbly beard, and said "da" as Berezovsky’s lawyer Laurence Rabinowitz guided him through various witness statements as to how he grew up.

An orphan raised by an uncle, The Daily Telegraph records, he left school at 16, went to local college but was drafted into the Soviet army before he graduated. After that, he went back to college but he dropped out again to go to the Moscow school for auto engineering and road building. He dropped out once more, in favour of starting a business building plastic toys. That led to the oil business. Only after he made his money did he secure a postal degree, in law.

Abramovich met Berezovsky, a former professor who was a major player in post-communist Russia, on a yacht in the Caribbean in 1994. He sold him on the idea of buying-up Russian oil.

But everything changed in 2000 when Vladimir Putin came to power as president, argued with Berezovsky and prompted his flight into exile in Britain. "His time had passed," said Abramovich. "His period in Russia's post-communist history was over. Russia had moved on. I had moved on."

So Abramovich, who is pals with Putin, flew to Switzerland in a helicopter to meet Berezovsky and tell him that he was ending the "krysha" payments with a final £800 million to "buy my freedom" and "close this chapter of my life".

Abramovich’s barrister, Jonathan Sumption QC, explained to the court that the Russia where this story unfolds was a lawless and physically dangerous place much like "14th century England".

As the Daily Mail puts it, during those three hours of testimony we may have learned more about the softly spoken oligarch and his background in the Soviet Union than he has ever cared to make public before.

Abramovich’s testimony continues today.

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