Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has struck an agreement in a London court with Forbes magazine in which the publication agreed to drop claims that the
businessman is the "godfather of the Kremlin", news reports said Friday.
The agreement settles a six-year legal battle that pitted Berezovsky, once seen as one of the most powerful figures in former president Boris Yeltsin's
Kremlin, against the first public account of how he allegedly made fortunes in illegal dealings.
Berezovsky launched his legal action after a December 30, 1996 Forbes article titled "Is He the Godfather of the Kremlin?" also indirectly linked him to the 1995 murder of Vladislav Listyev, a popular television host and a top executive at ORT television.
Russian media accounts of the court settlement said that Forbes agreed to no
longer re-publish unconfirmed information about Berezovsky's past, while the
tycoon agreed to drop his financial claims against the publication.
Berezovsky went into exile in London after President Vladimir Putin's government opened a series of criminal inquiries into his past, and is seen to have since lost much of his political influence in Russia.
He has since waged several unsuccessful battles to launch a political movement that could topple Putin's immensely popular leadership.
Berezovsky tried to organize a democratic opposition party, which gained little momentum, and was later kicked out from its ranks for his decision to
also court the Communist Party.
Most recently, in February, Berezovsky accused the Russian security service of masterminding the hostage crisis in Moscow last October that claimed the lives of some 130 civilians being held captive in a theater by Chechen rebels.