Oligarch Wins Suit Against Russian Broadcaster

Self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has won his libel case against a Kremlin-owned broadcaster that aired allegations he masterminded the murder of a former KGB agent in London.

FILE - In this Friday, May 10, 2002 file photo Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of...

FILE - In this Friday, May 10, 2002 file photo Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within", photographed at his home in London. Self-exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky has won his libel case, Wednesday March 10, 2010, against a Russian broadcaster that accused him of masterminding the murder of Litvinenko, a former Russian agent in London. (AP Photo/Alistair Fuller, File)

(AP)

The 64-year-old tycoon's victory against All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting is the latest round in the oligarch's battle against the Kremlin, which has long sought to bring him before a Russian court.

Berezovsky sued after the broadcaster, known by its acronym RTR, aired a show in which it was suggested he was behind the poisoning death of renegade Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006.

In the ruling at London's High Court, Justice David Eady awarded Berezovsky 150,000 pounds (about $225,000) in damages, saying: "There is no evidence before me that Mr. Berezovsky had any part in the murder of Mr. Litvinenko. Nor, for that matter, do I see any basis for reasonable grounds to suspect him of it."

Berezovsky, who was in court for the verdict, said in a statement he was pleased the court "has unequivocally demolished RTR's claims."

RTR, which did not take part in the hearings, called the judgment illegal. Speaking from Moscow, the broadcaster's lawyer Zoya Matviyevskaya said the company "does not recognize the decision of the court" and was ready to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Berezovsky, a once-powerful member of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin's circle, played a key role in the rise of his successor, Vladimir Putin. But the oligarch's influence crumbled as Putin tightened his grip on power, and Berezovsky fled to Britain in 2001, allying himself with prominent Kremlin critics.

Among them was Litvinenko, who fled Russia with Berezovsky's help after accusing officials there of plotting to assassinate political opponents.

Litvinenko died on Nov. 26, 2006 after drinking tea laced with a lethal dose of the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210 in a London hotel. From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his poisoning, and British police named former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi as the prime suspect.