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London - Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky launched legal action on Friday claiming £2bn from fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich, in a row over share sales.
Berezovsky, 62, is suing the 41-year-old owner of Chelsea football club over claims he was forced to sell shares in Russian oil company Sibneft, aluminium giant Rusal and TV channel ORT at bargain prices after being intimidated.
Abramovich's lawyer, speaking at the High Court in London, said the claims were unfounded. "These are very large claims running into billions of dollars," Andrew Popplewell told judge David Mackie.
"But the arguability of the claims depends wholly on oral conversations which are not documented."
The two Russians, once business partners, are among the world's richest individuals, although Abramovich's reported fortune of more than £10bn dwarfs Berezovsky's £500m.
Popplewell said the allegations included the claim that Berezovsky was intimidated into selling the shares for below market value "by threats made by Mr Abramovich".
"It is these slender oral allegations of intimidation and threats on which the whole of this claim hinges," he said, adding: "All these claims are for the most part pleaded in the most vague and unparticularised way."
"They have been pursued in a dilatory fashion and advanced in a constantly changing and contradictory way which simply smacks of desperation."
Berezovsky has lived in Britain since 2000 after falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- AFP