{"id":605094,"date":"2021-07-28T15:36:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T19:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=605094"},"modified":"2021-07-28T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T19:36:47","slug":"russian-billionaire-sues-uk-journalist-publisher-over-book-tying-putin-to-kgb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russian-billionaire-sues-uk-journalist-publisher-over-book-tying-putin-to-kgb\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Billionaire Sues UK Journalist, Publisher Over Book Tying Putin To KGB"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussian-billionaire-sues-uk-journalist-publisher-over-book-tying-putin-to-kgb%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=605094&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/721C6812-677C-47E7-BBE6-271907ADE837_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">A journalist and publisher in the United Kingdom are being sued by a Russian billionaire because of a book about Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sports-government-and-politics-business-europe-russia-7d9a08ab67d7a3a14bfaa5c7a9ed478d\">reported<\/a> by The Associated Press, \u201cCatherine Belton\u2019s book \u2018Putin\u2019s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West\u2019 charts the rise to wealth and power of former KGB agent Putin and his circle of associates after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Belton is a former Financial Times correspondent in Moscow and her publisher is HarperCollins. They both \u201ccontested a defamation claim in a London court on Wednesday from billionaire Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich,\u201d per the outlet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Abramovich took issue with specific parts of the book, saying that the book\u2019s argument that he bought the Chelsea team in 2003 because he was told to do so by Putin is \u201cfalse and defamatory.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The journalist is also being sued for libel by Russia\u2019s energy firm, Rosneft, which is owned by the state. \u201cHarperCollins was also facing suits from Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman and Russian banker Petr Aven, but Tomlinson said Wednesday that those claims have been settled,\u201d per the outlet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/uk-russia-journalist\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears-idUSKBN2EX2W0\"><span class=\"s1\">reported<\/span><\/a> by Reuters:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"16\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Lawyers for Rosneft, Russia\u2019s biggest oil company, said in documents submitted to court that they took issue with passages in the book which were understood to mean that the company had \u201cexpropriated\u201d the assets of YUKOS \u2013 once Russia\u2019s biggest oil company \u2013 and purchased YUKOS assets at a \u201cfarcically rigged auction\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\"><em>Rosneft and CEO Igor Sechin did not respond to written requests for comment on the case when contacted by Reuters.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\"><em>Lawyers for Rosneft took issue with passages in the book which claimed that Sechin was behind what Belton called \u201cthe attack\u201d on Yukos.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Abramovich\u2019s lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, said that the book &nbsp;\u201cholds itself out as a serious work of contemporary history, but unfortunately it repeats lazy inaccuracies.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Tomlinson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/uk-russia-journalist\/russias-abramovich-didnt-buy-chelsea-for-putin-court-hears-idUSKBN2EX2W0\"><span class=\"s1\">told<\/span><\/a> the High Court that \u201cThe claimant is described in the book as Putin\u2019s cashier and the custodian of Kremlin slush funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWhat is said to be happening is that Mr. Abramovich is making his wealth available to Putin\u2026 secretly to Putin and his cronies \u2013 that is the view the reasonable and ordinary reader would take,\u201d Tomlinson said of the book.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Andrew Caldecott, a lawyer for Belton and HarperCollins, said people who read the book would come to the conclusion that \u201cthere are grounds to suspect Mr. Abramovich was acting at the Kremlin\u2019s direction.\u201d The book also has a \u201cfirm denial\u201d from a person near to Abramovich, he said, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/uk-journalist-sued-by-russian-billionaires-over-putin-book\/2021\/07\/28\/3b5ca8d2-ef9c-11eb-81b2-9b7061a582d8_story.html\"><span class=\"s1\">The Washington Post<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The hearing is set to go on for two days and is meant to decide \u201cwhat a reasonable and ordinary reader would understand the allegedly defamatory statements to mean. Those disputed statements will then form the basis of the defamation trial,\u201d Reuters noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Critics have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/uk-journalist-sued-by-russian-billionaires-over-putin-book\/2021\/07\/28\/3b5ca8d2-ef9c-11eb-81b2-9b7061a582d8_story.html\">pointed<\/a> to free speech concerns and the ability for people who are wealthy to challenge disapproval in Britain\u2019s courts. What is also alarming, however, is the blatant attack on a journalist from a state-sponsored Russian energy firm and extremely wealthy Russians who are potentially close to Putin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A journalist and publisher in the United Kingdom are being sued by a Russian billionaire because of a book about Russian President Vladimir Putin.As reported by The Associated Press, \u201cCatherine &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}