Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich

BBC

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has won his legal battle against exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

Berezovsky, 65, said Abramovich, 45, had intimidated him into selling shares in Russian oil giant Sibneft. He was claiming £3bn ($4.7bn) in damages.

But the London Commercial Court judge said Berozovsky had been an "inherently unreliable" witness.

Berezovsky said he was "shocked" at Mrs Justice Gloster's decision and that she had rewritten Russian history.

The BBC estimates the total legal costs in the case are up to £100m.

In her ruling the judge said: "On my analysis of the entirety of the evidence, I found Mr Berezovsky an unimpressive, and inherently unreliable, witness, who regarded truth as a transitory, flexible concept, which could be moulded to suit his current purposes."

She said she dismissed Berezovsky's claims in relation to Sibneft - and a claim Abramovich had broken a promise over a deal involving Russian aluminium company RusAl - "in their entirety".

She also said she found Abramovich "to be a truthful, and on the whole reliable, witness".

Berezovsky, who had told reporters before the verdict that: "I believe in the system", afterwards said : "I am absolutely amazed by what's happened today... particularly because Lady Gloster took the responsibility to rewrite Russian history."

Asked if he felt Russia's President Vladimir Putin would be happy with the ruling, he replied: "Sometimes I have the impression that Putin himself wrote this judgment."

He said he did not regret bringing the case against Abramovich and did not know if he would appeal, adding: "I was absolutely shocked... but life is life."

The BBC's Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford said there had been a lot of interest in the case in Russia as it shed light on the controversial sale of Russia's mineral wealth by the state to a small group of oligarchs in the early 1990s.

Abramovich was not in court for the ruling and is thought to be in Monte Carlo for Chelsea's Super Cup Final on Friday night.

When he gave evidence, Abramovich had said Berezovsky was paid millions of pounds for his services as a "political godfather" but was not a business partner.

The court heard Berezovsky "fled Russia, never to return" in 2000, after falling out with President Vladimir Putin.