the agreement is being seen overall as a victory for Belton, who has come under unprecedented legal assault from billionaires with Kremlin ties. Abramovich served for eight years as governor of Chukotka, a region in Russia’s far east. He has consistently denied being under the Russian government’s control.
In a statement, she said “this last year has felt like a war of attrition” in which she had been “bombarded with lawsuits” from four Russian billionaires and Rosneft. Belton added: “Though the claimants have denied it was coordinated, it has seemed to me similar to the Kremlin’s multi-pronged campaign against Ukraine in which it has sought to exhaust the west into making security concessions over Nato’s expansion.” She continued: “Throughout, HarperCollins has staunchly defended the book. I could not have wished for a better or braver publisher more committed to public interest journalism.” Campaigners have described the case against Belton as an abuse of the UK’s libel system. Abramovich sued the former Financial Times journalist personally as well as her publisher. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/roman-abramovich-settles-libel-claim-over-putin-biography
