The Court of Appeal has allowed a Russian wife to bring her $6bn divorce to the UK.
The Court of Appeal has ruled that Natalia Potanina, 59, can bring a financial claim against 60-year-old Vladimir Potanin in the English courts.
The Financial Times has reported that her attempt to bring proceedings in the English courts was blocked by the High Court in 2019 on the grounds that the couple had little connection with Britain. A judge said that if her claim went ahead, “there is effectively no limit to divorce tourism”.
It was today announced that Natalia would be able to go ahead with her claim in the UK. If it goes ahead, the case would be one of the biggest divorce award cases to be heard in the English courts. London has been called the “divorce capital of the world” due to courts awarding big financial payouts to financially weaker spouses — often wives.
The couple’s bitter divorce battle comes after their marriage ended in acrimony when Mr Potanin confessed to an affair with a junior employee in 2013. The couple have since married and have two children.