Russian billionaire's ex-wife to launch Britain's 'biggest ever divorce case'

The ex-wife of a one of Russia's richest men has been given the go-ahead for a multi-billion pound divorce, which is likely to be the biggest ever divorce case in English history.

Natalia Potanina is looking for a £5billion pay out from Vladimir Potanin, who is estiamted to be worth around $20 billlion dollars - around £15.7 billion. She started legal proceedings back in 2019 and has today won a Court of Appeal bid to bring a multibillion-pound claim against her ex-husband who is currently subject to sanctions over his involvement with the war in Ukraine.

Ms Potanina lived in a classical mansion near Moscow, not unlike Versailles, with her former husband and enjoyed holidaying in the Mediterranean and Cap d’Antibes on one of two luxury yachts. But back in 2013, she claims her husband calmly announced over tea that he wanted to split up after having an affair with a junior employee.

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Their bitter public battle has now taken more than a decade underway after she originally declined to sign the divorce paper when her estranged husband said she didn't need money.

She is now seeking half of her former husband’s fortune, which he earned during their marriage, she pointed out that she fell in love when they were both penniless Soviet students in the egalitarian 1970s. According to the Guardian, at the centre of the dispute is the family’s home in the village of Nemchinovo, set in a pine forests 17 miles west of Moscow.

The couple shared it with their three, now adult children, Anastasia; Ivan and Vasily. It had a designer garden, basement casino and spa, and biblical paintings by the 19th-century Russian artist Vasily Polenov. Ms Potanina has been living in London since around 2014.

She told the newspaper back in 2016: "There are many people who end up in this situation. I guess this is true worldwide but especially in Russia. Our society is male dominated. The law is male. The ideology is male.” Asked if she was a feminist, she said: “Now, I am.”

She said, she they dated, fell in love and got married when Potanin, the son of high-ranking party officials, had hippyish long hair. She said: “We had absolutely no money. I did not marry an oligarch who already owned factories and steamships. We lived in my parents’ apartment.”

In July her legal team told a hearing that she had earned her share of the family’s wealth after years of marriage and being the “main carer” for their three children. Lawyers for Mr Potanin opposed the appeal, saying his ex-wife had no connection to England.

However, in a ruling on Thursday, Lord Justice Moylan, Lady Justice Falk and Lord Justice Cobb found that Mrs Potanina “would probably be able to argue that she is/was ‘fully entitled’ to a wide range of financial relief consequent upon divorce, without any discount or special factor limiting her claim”.

The businessman claims the couple separated in 2007, with a Russian court granting a divorce in 2014. But Mrs Potanina argues that they did not separate until 2013. In June 2022, Mr Potanin was hit with UK sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Today's ruling comes after the case has already spent years in the UK courts. Mr Justice Cohen first dismissed Mrs Potanina’s case in 2019, but this was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2021. Appeal judges were told in 2021 that Mrs Potanina is seeking around £5 billion from her ex-husband following the breakdown of their marriage.

Mr Potanin then took the case to the Supreme Court, which in January last year ruled with a three-to-two majority in his favour and sent the case back to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration. The Supreme Court was told that Mrs Potanina wanted half of the value of her ex-husband’s shares in mining firm Norilsk Nickel, half the dividends on the shares since 2014, and half the value of a Russian property known as The Autumn House.

At the Court of Appeal hearing in July, Mrs Potanina’s barrister Charles Howard KC said Mr Justice Cohen had been “inconsistent and illogical” in the way he dealt with Mrs Potanina’s connection with England. He said the judge had fallen into the trap of Mr Potanin repeatedly saying his ex-wife was “a divorce tourist”.

In written submissions, Lord Faulks KC, for Mr Potanin, had said: “These former spouses had no connection with this jurisdiction during the marriage and the wife had only recent and modest connections when she applied for leave.”

In a written judgment, Lord Justice Cobb said that he believed the judge was “wrong” and that he was “satisfied” that Mrs Potanina “had substantial ground” to pursue her claim in England. In response to the ruling, Frances Hughes, from Hughes Fowler Carruthers, which represents Mrs Potanina, said: “The decision of the Court of Appeal is a second vindication of our client in making her application in 2019.

“Our client is grateful for the consideration given by the court to her case and is delighted that the Court of Appeal has recognised, for the second time, the merits of her application. She very much hopes that her case can now be resolved and can be concluded without further delay”.