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Four Russian billionaires and the country’s state energy giant have filed lawsuits against HarperCollins for a book he published last year on the rise of Vladimir Putin.
The legal aggression in the book, Putin’s people, has reached a large number of cases before the courts in London, all within a few weeks, including Mikhail Fridman, a tycoon in banking, retail and telecommunications, and Roman Abramovich, the owner of the football club in London. Chelsea.
Defamation and data protection lawsuits name the British arm of HarperCollins, along with the book’s author, Catherine Belton, a former Financial Times journalist. Putin’s people, published in April 2020, details the rise to power of the Russian president and his relationship with the wealthy oligarchs.
The litigation highlights the nature of writing about powerful oligarchs and the role of London-based lawyers in defending the interests of the world’s elite. The law firms that act for the plaintiffs are Carter-Ruck, CMS, Harbottle & Lewis and Taylor Wessing.
HarperCollins described Belton’s book as “authoritative, important, and conscientious work.” “We will strongly defend this acclaimed and innovative book and the right to report on issues of considerable public interest,” the editor added. Belton made no separate comment.
Abramovich, who filed the first lawsuit, and March said his “action was not taken lightly” and that the book contained “false and defamatory” statements about him. Court documents showed Abramovich’s defamation lawsuit disputes a claim that Putin ordered the acquisition of Chelsea in 2003, as well as other allegations. A spokesman for Abramovich made no further comment.
The book comes from the claim of exiled Russian billionaire Sergei Pugachev, who was a member of Putin’s inner circle before he fell, fled the country and became a dissident. In a 2017 case, a Superior Court judge described Pugachev as an unreliable witness.
The other claimants, whose actions have not been previously reported, are Fridman, his longtime business partner Peter Aven, Russian real estate mogul Shalva Chigirinsky and Rosneft, the Kremlin-controlled oil producer. Aven has filed its claim under the Data Protection Act. Judicial documents for these cases are not yet available.
The lawsuits quickly followed one another in March and April, around the one-year deadline set by UK legislation for defamation actions.
“We can confirm that neither Mr. Aven nor Mr. Fridman had prior knowledge of the other lawsuits he has referred to,” a Fridman spokesman said in a statement. “They have not had any contact or coordinated a legal strategy with the other plaintiffs or their lawyers.
“The cases of Mr. Aven and Mr. Fridman were filed within the applicable statute of limitations and only after the defendants (HarperCollins) had refused to discuss a series of remedial actions suggested by the attorneys acting for Mr. Aven and Mr. Fridman, “the spokesman added.
Rosneft did not respond to any requests for comment. Chigirinsky could not be contacted immediately to comment on his lawyers.
Jessica Ni Mhainín of the Index on Censorship, a group that campaigns for free speech, said London courts were becoming the preferred site for legal action designed to “overturn critical journalism, not only in the UK, but all over the world. “
He added that the UK is hosting a global industry that benefits from these lawsuits against journalists and called for the introduction of reforms.
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