UK: Roman Abramovich wins first round of libel battle over Putin's People book
Source: The Guardian
Roman Abramovich wins first round of libel battle over Putin’s People book
UK judge rules some passages convey a defamatory meaning, including claim Putin told him to buy Chelsea
Luke Harding
Wed 24 Nov 2021 18.17 GMT
A judge has ruled that a number of passages in the bestselling book Putin’s People convey a defamatory meaning against Roman Abramovich, including a claim that he bought Chelsea football club on Vladimir Putin’s orders.
The Russian oligarch said he was defamed by 26 specific passages in the book by the journalist Catherine Belton, all of which he says convey untrue meanings about him.
In a preliminary ruling on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Tipples said an ordinary reader would understand those sections to mean Abramovich had bought the Premier League club for £150m in 2003 “under the Kremlin’s direction”.
She said the book suggested Abramovich was “under the control of Putin” and that the oligarch was obliged “to make the fortune from his business empire available for the use of President Putin and his regime”.
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Abramovich is one of three Russian tycoons who initiated libel proceedings against Belton and her publisher, HarperCollins, over a book widely acclaimed as the definitive work on the Putin era. The Russian state oil company Rosneft, run by Putin’s close ally Igor Sechin, has also sued.
The case prompted press freedom organisations to call on the UK government to examine how foreign billionaires are using libel courts.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/24/roman-abramovich-wins-first-round-of-libel-battle-over-putins-people-book
