An exiled Russian oligarch called Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich a “bastard” after being “blackmailed”, a British High Court judge was told.

AN EXILED Russian oligarch has told a British trial that Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich was a “gangster”.

RUSSIAN oligarch Boris Berezovsky yesterday told the High Court that tycoon Rupert Murdoch was a “great businessman” and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich a “genius”.

CHELSEA Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is “good at appearing to be humble”, a British High Court judge was told.

RUSSIAN oligarch Boris Berezovsky has a lively sense of his own importance and some of his actions appear to conform to the “classic psychology of the political exile”, a lawyer for Chelsea Football Club’s owner Roman Abramovich told the High Court in London.

CHELSEA Football Club owner Roman Abramovich operated in a Russian state in which the “rule of law” had disappeared, police were “corrupt”, courts “open to manipulation” and businessmen needed access to a “political godfather”, a judge in London has heard.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich "betrayed and blackmailed" fellow Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and demonstrated that wealth and influence meant more to him than loyalty and friendship, a barrister has alleged in the High Court.

CHELSEA Football Club owner Roman Abramovich has lost an appeal over a £2 billion (€2.4bn) claim against him by fellow Russian oligarch and former business partner Boris Berezovsky.

CHELSEA Football Club owner Roman Abramovich lost a bid to dismiss a £2 billion (€2.25bn) claim against him by fellow Russian oligarch and former business partner Boris Berezovsky yesterday.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich lost a bid to dismiss a £2bn (€2.2bn) claim against him by fellow Russian oligarch and former business partner Boris Berezovsky today.

ONE billion dollars is no longer enough to gain entry to Russia’s rich list.

RUSSIAN gas monopoly Gazprom said net profit doubled in the first half of 2006 as prices for gas in Europe and Russia rose and the firm sold bigger volumes.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is believed to have bought a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, which floated in London and Moscow last week.

Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, was sworn in today for a new five-year term as governor of the Russian Far East region of Chukotka.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger warned that two bookmakers are “taking a big risk” by paying out on Chelsea winning on the Barclays Premiership title race after just seven games.

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich today agreed to sell Russian oil company Sibneft for £7.36bn (€10.79bn).

Super-rich Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is to fight a legal claim from a British oil firm boss over a half share in a £1bn (€1.5bn) Siberian oil fields venture.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter appeared to categorically rule out automatic two-year bans for first drugs offences in football.

RAFAEL BENITEZ is determined speculation over Michael Owen’s future will cast no shadow over Liverpool’s attempts to win the European Super Cup against CSKA Moscow tonight.

Billionaire Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich is in the final stage of talks to sell a majority stake in Russian oil company Sibneft to the state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, the Kommersant business daily reported today.

CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon will contest the UEFA Cup final at Sporting’s own Jose Alvalade Stadium.

FORGET their 10-point lead atop the Premiership and the race to an unprecedented quadruple, Chelsea are about to scoop the first honour of the Roman Abramovich era - record losses.

A British-based bank is suing Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, his Sibneft oil company and another former director of a now-defunct Russian firm that owes £9.37m (€13.3m) to the bank.

SPECULATION that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is spreading his financial interests in football to South America has resurfaced in the Russian billionaire’s homeland.

UEFA will consider introducing strict new rules on club sponsors to avoid possible conflicts of interest once they have completed an investigation into any connections between Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and their Champions League opponents CSKA Moscow.

Russia’s richest man, ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that could jail him for 10 years, while authorities tightened the grip on the beleaguered oil company’s key production assets.

Billionaire Chelsea boss Roman Abramovich may be the next target of Kremlin prosecutors after the remote region he runs was declared bankrupt by Russia’s highest audit body.

The Russian region governed by Chelsea football club’s billionaire boss Roman Abramovich is bankrupt, a state auditor said today.

Russian oil companies Yukos and Sibneft have agreed to reverse their planned merger, effectively restoring the status quo that existed before they announced the deal to create the world’s fourth largest oil producer in April.

Chelsea football club’s billionaire Russian owner found his fortune a little depleted yesterday.

Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion, has announced his resignation from Yukos, saying the move is a bid to save the oil giant from an escalating criminal probe that has seen top shareholders imprisoned and a large chunk of its stock frozen.

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has quit as chief executive of Yukos, the country's largest oil company.

RUSSIAN stocks tumbled in their biggest decline in over four years amid concern the arrest on Saturday of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive of AO Yukos Oil Co and the country’s richest man, may scare off investors.

RUSSIAN oil giant Yukos yesterday completed its merger with smaller rival Sibneft, creating the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.

BILLIONAIRE Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich plans to make his home debut in the directors’ box on Saturday, when he will receive a hero’s welcome from a 42,000 capacity crowd at Stamford Bridge.

Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea Football Club was thrust back into the spotlight today as it emerged that a second probe into shares in the team had been launched.

IT MAY be a difficult name to chant, but if Roman Abramovich can divert just a fraction of his wealth into the running of Chelsea football club he may well become the fans’ new favourite.

Chelsea owner Ken Bates has hailed a new era for the Premiership club after he agreed to sell his majority shareholding to a millionaire Russian businessman.

CHELSEA owner Ken Bates last night cleared the way for a Russian businessman to buy the club for around £30million.