Chalva Tchigirinsky, the embattled Russian tycoon, has claimed that the powerful wife of the Moscow mayor, Elena Baturina, secretly held 50 per cent of his stake in Sibir Energy and his property businesses in return for assisting him with “bureaucratic issues”.

In a witness statement filed at London’s High Court as part of complex legal wrangling over rights to Mr Tchigirinsky’s 23.5 per cent stake in Sibir, Mr Tchigirinsky’s lawyer Christopher Grierson said his client feared Ms Baturina was now using a third Russian businessman, Ruslan Baisarov, as a “front” to attempt to divest him of his holding in the Aim-listed Russian oil company.