Roman 3rd sexiest billionaire; still Beast of the Earth
Well. The dirt's really starting to emerge in the Berezovsky case. The main news today (and, quite possibly, ever) is the 52-page defence document cited in the Times, which contains Roman's own account of how he spent billions in protection money and bribes in order to amass his multibillion fortune.
I must admit I don't quite understand that part. He spent billions paying off dodgy people in order to become a multibillionaire. OK, so where did he get the billions that he paid in bribes to the...? Well, OK, we'll skip the economics bit. To continue: he denies extorting money from Berezovsky; he claims Berezovsky extorted a massive wodge from him anyway; he paid loads of bribes to Badri Patarkatsishvili (who died in February, apparently from natural causes). Articles here, here and here, all by the same writer, who seems convinced Vishy's going to die soon and volunteers the somewhat frivolous information that "he is happiest in the banya playing chess".
How do you play chess in a banya? Wouldn't your chessboard get mouldy?
Anyway. Just in case you're starting to get the feeling that Vish makes an odd lust object, consider the findings of some or other Sexiest Billionaire Poll that took place in Britain recently. Apparently the five most fancied moneybags here are:
1. Richard Branson (wtf?!)
2. Paul McCartney (understandable to some extent, but he's not a billionaire)
3. Roman (woot!)
4. Alan Sugar (that sexist old fart?! Please)
5. Andrew Lloyd-Webber (DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDx!!!!!!!!!!)
Really, the thought that there are human beings who confess to seeing Andrew Lloyd-Webber in any kind of romantic light makes me feel quite sane by comparison.