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Q [Laurence Rabinowitz for Boris Berezovsky]

Mr Abramovich, in the course of that answer you said when you visited him — talking about Mr Patarkatsishvili — in February [2003], you told him that you were selling [Rusal] because Oleg [Deripaska] was trying to squeeze you out. Is that now your evidence?


A [Roman Abramovich]

I said that was my feeling. At that time [2003] we were doing a deal, if I remember correctly, with Yukos, the second merger with Yukos, and the next deal would have been a large one: either a merger with Exxon or a merger with Chevron. And generally at that time it seemed to me that I would sell everything, I would rid myself of everything, divest of everything; all I would hold would be shares in the large western oil companies and that would be it. I had enough with that. I was a governor. I would have western oil companies’ shares. I can’t say that I decided to retire but I decided that I would pay — or dedicate less time to business.

 

— in the UK High Court, November 9, 2011

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