This year Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, two of Russia’s most prominent oligarchs, squared off in a London courtroom—former business partners turned bitter enemies. At stake were billions of dollars. And a constant presence in the courtroom was a man who wasn’t there: Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
“But your witness statement says, ‘For me, O.R.T. is not only the first step into mass media, it is also good business,’” objected Sumption. “Is that wrong?”
“It’s correct.”
“So you used connections for business?”
“No. I want to stress it was not for business at all.”
“You needed $200 million for funding O.R.T. And you thought that an oil company would be a good source?”
“I took O.R.T. under control only to help with election coming 1996. I don’t want to give the impression that I was not interested in business. I was very interested. But I was interested to make money only to create political stability.”
