It was handbags at noon when two of Russia’s richest oligarchs clashed at a London fashion boutique yesterday.

Boris Berezovsky, an archenemy of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was shopping in Dolce & Gabbana on Sloane Street when his bodyguards spotted Chelsea football club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, shopping two doors down.

Berezovsky, once a partner to Abramovich in three of Russia’s largest businesses, has been trying to serve a £5 billion writ on the billionaire for the past six months.

According to his spokesman the former mathematics professor has been carrying the writ around with him in his limousine, waiting for such a moment.

Berezovsky, 61, ran to his Maybach limousine and, with the writ in hand and surrounded by his bodyguards, tried to get into the exclusive Hermès boutique where Abramovich had retreated.

According to eyewitnesses Abramovich’s bodyguards tried to block the doorway. “There was a bit of a scuffle with the bodyguards, but nothing serious,” Berezovsky’s spokesman said.

“Boris got past and confronted Abramovich with the writ. Abramovich put his hands into his pockets. I think he’s been watching too much television. He seemed to think if he didn’t have physical contact with it then the writ would not be served.”

The drama was captured on the shop’s CCTV and Berezovsky’s lawyers, Carter-Ruck, immediately requested it as proof that the High Court writ had been served.

Last night Berezovsky, who is worth a modest £500m to Abramovich’s £10.8 billion, said: “It was like a scene from The Godfather. This now goes into the legal process.”

A spokesman for Abramovich, 40, refused to comment. The lawsuit is understood to relate to a long-running dispute between the men over the sale of three Russian companies.

Berezovsky claims he has been targeted for assassination by Putin and employed Alexander Litvinenko, the victim of last November’s radiation killing.

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