U.K. Judge Finds Claims In Book About Russia's Abramovich Defamatory
A British judge has found that a book that claimed
Russian-Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich bought London's Chelsea soccer club
on the Kremlin's orders as part of a plot to gain influence in the United
Kingdom were defamatory after he sued for libel.
In her critically acclaimed 2020 book, British journalist
Catherine Belton describes Vladimir Putin's rise to power and how many former
intelligence agents gained positions of wealth and influence after he secured
control of the Kremlin in 1999.
Among the claims in Putin's People: How The KGB Took Back
Russia And Then Took On The West is that Putin has used corrupt money to spread
influence abroad, including Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea in 2003.
Judge Amanda Tipples was asked to determine the
"natural and ordinary" meaning of the allegations about Abramovich in
a first-round libel claim. She said on November 24 that the court was only
deciding on the meaning of the passages and not whether or not the allegations
made in the book were true or not.
The passages will form the basis of a defamation trial,
where the former Financial Times Moscow correspondent and publisher will have
to defend their use.
In the ruling, Tipples found that readers of the book would
understand Abramovich to be "under the control of President Vladimir Putin
and, on the directions of President Putin and the Kremlin, he has had to make
the fortune from his business empire available for the use of President Putin
and his regime."
"The claimant has had little choice but to comply with
these directions because, if he had not done so, he would have lost his wealth
to the Russian state and could have been exiled or jailed."
Tipples also said an ordinary reader would understand the
book to allege "the claimant purchased Chelsea Football Club in 2003 at
the direction of President Putin so that Russia could gain acceptance and
influence in the U.K."
Abramovich's lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, told the court in July
that readers of the book would conclude that Abramovich "had been used as
the acceptable face of a corrupt and dangerous regime" and had a corrupt
relationship with Putin, acting as his "cashier."
However, Andrew Caldecott, representing the defendants,
pointed out that the reference to Abramovich being a cashier was "in
quotation marks, suggesting it is someone else's observation."
Caldecott also told the court that the book "records a
firm denial from a 'person close to Abramovich'" about the claim the
billionaire bought Chelsea on the Kremlin's orders.
The judge also ruled a reader would understand that the
billionaire moved to New York on Putin's orders to try to influence former U.S.
President Donald Trump's family on Russia's behalf.
Following the judgment, an Abramovich spokesperson said:
"We welcome today's judgment, which rules that the book Putin's People
indeed makes several defamatory allegations about Mr. Abramovich, including
false allegations about the nature of the purchase of Chelsea Football
Club."
"Today's judgment further underscores the need for the
false and defamatory claims about Mr. Abramovich to be corrected as soon as
possible," the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for the publishing house said,
"HarperCollins is carefully considering the judgment on the meaning
hearing handed down this morning by Mrs. Justice Tipples regarding the book
Putin's People by Catherine Belton, an acclaimed work of considerable public
interest.”
HarperCollins and Belton are also being sued for libel by
Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft because of the book.
Tipples also ruled that one of four claims concerning
Rosneft's purchase of an oil company was defamatory.
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