Roman Abramovich was an undeclared member of President Putin’s regime in Russia when he bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003, documents in a clash-of-the-oligarchs court battle suggested yesterday.

The football boss emerges from legal papers signed by Boris Berezovsky, his friend turned rival, as an “enforcer” figure, passing on alleged threats so that the Kremlin could get its way over media and business.

Mr Berezovsky, accompanied by minders, arrived at the Commercial Court in London to hear legal arguments in his $4 billion (£2 billion) case against Mr Abramovich over oil and aluminium assets that he claims he was forced to surrender.

But there was no sign of his soccer-loving one-time protégé who, through his lawyers, denied making threats.

The claim details how the Chelsea boss allegedly leaned on Mr Berezovsky and his colleague, the Georgian oligarch Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, who was found dead of a suspected heart attack at his country house in Surrey two months ago.

The case paints a chilling picture of President Putin’s use of his security machine to avenge criticism from Russian television of his handling of the Kursk disaster, when all hands were lost after a submarine sank in the Barents Sea.

“Mr Abramovich was formerly a trusted friend and close business associate of Mr Berezovsky,” the claim states. Mr Berezovsky resigned from the Russian parliament after Mr Putin became President in 2000 and said he would start an opposition movement.

In August 2000 the Russian TV channel ORT, 51 per cent owned by the state but with most other shares controlled by Mr Berezovsky and Mr Patarkatsishvili, was critical of Mr Putin’s handling of the Kursk tragedy. Mr Putin told Mr Berezovsky that he would be imprisoned unless he sold the shares. He told Mr Patarkatsishvili that they “were friends, but that if Mr Patarkatsishvili stayed in television he would become his enemy”. Mr Berezovsky fled Russia.

In December 2000 Nikolai Glushkov, a close friend of both the ORT oligarchs, was arrested. By that time, “Mr Berezovsky and Mr Patarkatsishvili knew that Mr Abramovich was close to President Putin and part of his regime”.

Mr Abramovich met the pair on the French Riviera. “Mr Abramovich told Mr Berezovsky and Mr Patarkatsishvili that he had come on the orders of Mr Putin”. If they sold their TV interests, their friend would be freed. They sold but Mr Glushkov was kept jailed. Mr Patarkatsishvili also fled Russia.

The same ploy was allegedly used to deprive the pair of their shares in the oil company Sibneft. In August 2000 Mr Abramovich began to make threats. “It was clear to Mr Patarkatsishvili . . . that Mr Abramovich’s message . . . was that they should sell their beneficial interests in Sibneft to him, or face the consequences.” Mr Abramovich allegedly promised that Mr Glushkov would be freed if they sold their shares at half price. They did so, but Mr Glushkov was not liberated.

Andrew Popplewell, QC, for Mr Abramovich, said that the case was muddled. It was alleged that the respondent was part of the Putin regime. “Who knows what on earth that means?” he said.

The hearing was adjourned.

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