Boris Berezovsky had always believed in British justice. It was, after all, a British judge who had granted him asylum, after Berezovsky fell out with his one-time protege, Vladimir Putin, and fled in 2000 to London.

The move infuriated the Kremlin. Since then, the oligarch has notched up several other high court victories — libel actions against Forbes magazine and Russian TV, a couple of successful civil suits.

And so when Berezovsky decided to sue Roman Abramovich for $5 billion — in what was the biggest private litigation battle ever — he assumed he would win. Berezovsky believed the high court would accept his insider's account of Russia's colorful postcommunist history: that he and Abramovich had gone into business together in the Boris Yeltsin-driven 1990s. And that the Chelsea FC owner had later shafted him over Sibneft, the oil firm they cofounded.