Roman Abramovich used ‘barrage’ of legal threats to silence journalist, MPs hear
A prominent British journalist has said she received legal threats from Roman Abramovich after she published a book laying out the oligarch’s links to Vladimir Putin.
Reuters journalist Catherine Belton told MPs she received a “barrage” of legal threats from Russian oligarchs, including sanctioned billionaire Roman Abramovich and Everton backer Alisher Usmanov, after she published her bestelling book, Putin’s People.
Belton said Roman Abramovich sought to intimidate publisher Harper Collins out of defending the claim by seeking to double any legal costs the publisher would have to pay, by filing the claim in both the UK and Australia.
The author said that the five lawsuits, put forward by oligarchs and Russian oil companies including Rosneft and Yukos Oil, cost publisher Harper Collins a total £1.5m.
She claimed she was forced to remove “minor points” about Roman Abramovich and sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, as fighting the cases would have seen Harper Collins legal costs rise to £2.5m.
Speaking to a Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Belton said Abramovich’s filed his lawsuit against her despite the fact she had refrained from writing about various aspects of the “corrupt relationship” that exists between Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin.
“In fact, some of my sources said that Roman Abramovich should have given me a bouquet of flowers for writing about him so nicely in the book and going easy on him. Instead, we faced this lawsuit,” Belton said.
Lawfare
The Select Committee also heard that a number of major Canada law firms sought to silence and intimidate British journalist Tom Burgis, after he published his 2020 book Kleptopia.
Speaking to the Select Committee, Burgis said that before publishing his book, he received legal threats from London law firm Taylor Wessing, on behalf of the owners of Kazakhstani mining company ENRC, claiming Burgis had used “confidential documents” for some of his material.
Following publication, Burgis said he became subject to “lawfare” from New York law firm Boies Schiller in the US and Taylor Wessing in Britain, as he claimed Boies Schiller sought to force Buris’ pubisher Harper Collins to reveal his sources.
Burgis said Boies Schiller also accused him of being “corrupt” in a New York court, by raising allegations he had been paid by third parties to launch a “negative PR campaign against ERNC.”
The journalist and author said Taylor Wessing lawyer Niri Shanmuganathan raise similar claims in the UK, as he argued the law firms sought to damage his reputation by painting him as a “bent reporter”.
Burgis noted that Shanmuganathan’s own website claims he is good at “stopping stories appearing in the press.”
The journalist also said London litigator Quinn Emmanuel had sought to intimidate him, by claiming they were aware of his movements, as he argued the law firm had sought to send him the message, “You were being watched.”