mystery over dead man's letter Police outside the gates of Boris Berezovsky's mansion in Sunningdale near Ascot after his death last month. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, passed on a letter of apology from Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky to President Vladimir Putin, it has been claimed. The revelation, attributed to multiple sources by two news outlets in Moscow, will be an odd twist if proved true as the two oligarchs clashed in a multibillion-pound case in Britain's High Court last year. Mr Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled Kremlin critic, was found dead at his home in Berkshire last month. Mr Putin's press spokesman said after Mr Berezovsky's death that several months earlier the tycoon had written a letter to the President asking for forgiveness from his former protege and for permission to return to Russia. Some of Mr Berezovsky's friends expressed doubt at the claim, but the businessman's girlfriend, Katerina Sabirova, said this week that the exile was desperate to return to Moscow and that he did, in fact, send such a letter. Sources have now told Vedomosti newspaper and the liberal TV Rain that it was Mr Abramovich who brought the letter to Moscow. When asked if this was true, Mr Abramovich's spokesman, John Mann, told London's Daily Telegraph: "I know the answer but we will not be commenting because this is a personal matter." Mr Berezovsky, according to TV Rain, allegedly sent "several repentant letters," including one to Mr Abramovich and one to the Russian president. "Both the letter to Roman Abramovich and the one to Vladimir Putin contained apologies," an unidentified government source told the channel. Vedomosti said that sources close to Mr Abramovich had confirmed he passed on the letter. Mr Abramovich won a case against Mr Berezovsky in the High Court in August after the latter had sought £3 billion ($4.3 billion) from him in damages in a dispute over stakes in two Russian companies. Mr Berezovsky fled to Britain in 2001 after falling out with Mr Putin. After his death last month, friends said he had been deeply depressed by the loss of his suit against Mr Abramovich.