He has acquired at least 80% of Sibneft, one of Russia's largest oil companies.
"To read too much into this is like reading tea leaves, " said Sibneft spokesman John Mann.
He teamed up with Berezovsky to take over Sibneft at a fraction of its market value.
Last year, Gazprom, the giant state gas company, bought Sibneft, a private Russian oil producer.
Two big integrated oil firms, Yukos and Sibneft, said they were calling off a planned merger.
Yukos and Sibneft hope to construct their new holding company within six to eight weeks.
Abramovich counters that he already paid Berezovsky handsomely for his political clout and never promised ownership of Sibneft.
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Mr Berezovsky, 65, had claimed Mr Abramovich, 45, intimidated him into selling shares in Russian oil giant Sibneft.
Teamed up with Boris Berezovsky to take over oil giant Sibneft at a fraction of its market value.
Large and powerful companies, including Sibneft, Norilsk Nickel and Alfa Bank, were represented.
The Kommersant newspaper said on Monday that Gazprom could launch a joint bid for Sibneft with Royal Dutch Shell.
Yet while back-tax claims have wrecked Yukos, Sibneft seems to have settled a much smaller bill quietly and amicably.
In a similar vein, Sibneft used to brag about the advanced management and innovations introduced by its enlightened leaders.
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Abramovich (under oath, mind you) admitted that Sibneft sold to shadowy intermediaries (which he happened to own) at bargain-basement prices.
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Elf Aquitaine, a French energy company, last week pulled out of a planned alliance with Sibneft, a Russian oil firm.
In London, though, he's seen attending virtually every game, often with his wife and with fellow billionaire Sibneft President Evgeny Shvidler.
The duo had co-founded oil giant Sibneft in 1990s Russia, when the privatization of former state-owned assets made both men very rich.
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Sibneft was often in the news during Mr. Shuvalov's years in office.
The two fell out, with Berezovsky alleging that Abramovich blackmailed him into selling his Sibneft shares at a fraction of their market value.
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It is notable, too, that Yevgeny Shvidler, head of Sibneft, one of Mr Berezovsky's supposed assets, has signed the joint letter of protest.
Yukos produces more oil than it can refine, whereas Sibneft needs crude for its main refinery at Omsk, the biggest and best-equipped in Russia.
However, analysts took the move as a sign that Sibneft was preparing itself for a sale, after having earlier said it would pay no dividends.
He charges that Abramovich bullied him into selling his promised half stake in Sibneft for a fraction of its worth after his fall from favor.
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But, according to some critics, Sibneft has not grown up entirely.
Such a deal would certainly be good for Yukos-Sibneft, which would be able to get its oil out through a partner with world-wide distribution and refining facilities.
In his reluctant court appearances, Abramovich testified that Berezovsky indeed persuaded Yeltsin to merge a Siberian oil field and an Omsk refinery into the new company, Sibneft.
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Up until early 2004, he also held an option on a 0.5% stake in OAO Sibneft, then a major Russian oil company, say people familiar with his finances.
The other main shareholders in Group Menatep, the main owner of Yukos, have fled the country, and Yukos's takeover of Sibneft, another big oil company, has fallen apart.
Already, Sibneft, with Tyumen, controls nearly a quarter of Slavneft.
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