Russian Oligarchs

Private Eye has been banging on about the shady business dealings of Russian oligarchs for years - with stories about how tenders for huge natrual gas and other projects were fixed in advance - so there could only be one winner.

A bit like the betting scam involving Pakistan cricketers - only on a vastly bigger scale.

For the past week and more some of these tales are being played out at the Royal Courts of Justice in London - where two Russian oligarchs are doing battle - Boris Berezovsky and Roman Ambramovich (the owner of Cheslea Football Club).

Berezovsky is suing Abramovich - his one time protege - for £3.6 billion.

Berezovsky fled Russia some years ago - having fallen out with Vladimir Putin - and sought political asylum in the UK where he is now based.

Amongst all the allegations flying around is one from Berezovsky - which claims that Abramovich promised to buy Valdimir Putin a super-yacht - with a super price tag of $50 million dollars - and that he asked his then pal Berezovsky to split the cost with him.

Sounds incredible - but the Russian media has previously reported on Vladimir Putin's presence on a luxury 187ft yacht named Olympia - off the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Apparently the yacht was linked to a business partner of Roman Abramovich - though the Chelsea owner has denied make a gift of the yacht to the Russian President.

Russia is a proud country with a great history - breaking free of the Soviet Union was an historic moment - which will prove to be the right decision in the end.

But building a modern economy and a new democracy is proving difficult - not least because political power is concentrated in the hands of a very few people.

Not so different from what happens in modern 'western' countries - the cynic might say.

But I suppose the big difference is that you don't normally get poisoned with a fatal dose of radioactive polonium - in most western democracies at least - just for speaking out and criticising your country's powerful elites.