Billionaire Russian oligarch's £100m divorce 'costliest in British history'

London, July 23 (ANI): Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who lives in Britain, is expected to pay his wife Galina Besharova as much as 100 million pounds after she won a divorce battle from the billionaire.

The 'quickie' may go down as one of the costliest in British legal history.

Neither side attended the 45- second hearing at the High Court in London.

But in divorce papers Galina cited her husband's admitted "unreasonable behaviour" as the reason for ending their marriage.

District Judge Penny Cushing granted a decree nisi on the grounds that the marriage had "irretrievably broken down."

The pair married in November 1991.

Friends said the pair is on quite good terms. They haven't lived together for 15 years but are in regular contact because of their two children.

"The divorce is reasonably amicable. They still go on holiday together because of the kids," the Daily Express quoted Lord Bell, Mr Berezovsky's spokesman, as saying.

Divorce lawyer Vanessa Lloyd Platt said Ms Besharova's settlement could be even higher. "This is going to go down as one of the biggest reported divorce settlements in history," she added.

"If Mr Berezovsky is still worth 1 billion pounds, the settlement may even be greater than the 100 million pounds predicted. It could be as much as half a billion.

"The reality is that we've had some enormously big settlements in Britain - you just don't hear about many of them because they are subject to confidentiality agreements," she said.

Lord Bell did not comment on the figures but said those mentioned were "not accurate". (ANI)