Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska this morning won the first round of a legal battle to block a £1.5 billion lawsuit filed against him by a former friend and business partner.

A High Court judge ruled that since Mr Deripaska is not domiciled in the UK, a writ delivered to his London home to initiate legal proceedings by former associate Michael Cherney was invalid.

Mr Cherney claims that he is entitled to a 20 per cent stake in Mr Deripaska’s RusAl aluminium group following an agreement struck at a London hotel.

Lawyers for Mr Cherney had argued that Mr Deripaska should be considered a UK resident because he ran his global business empire from London and his Belgrave Square home is “staffed and kept available for his use all year round”.

But Mr Justice Langley said that as an immensely wealthy and extremely busy businessman, Mr Deripaska had residences in several countries and could not be assumed to be domiciled in the UK.

The judge added that there was no evidence to suggest Mr Deripaska managed his business affairs primarily from London. Rather, he managed them from Russia or wherever else he happened to be.

Mr Cherney, who will seek permission to appeal, was ordered to make a £150,000 interim payment towards Mr Deripaska’s costs, estimated at more than £400,000.

Mr Cherney and Mr Deripaska were partners at SibAl when they agreed to merge it with another aluminium group to form a new company to be known as RusAl.

Mr Cherney, who now lives in Israel, claims his former partner has reneged on their agreement and that he is owed 20 per cent of RusAl, worth around £1.5 billion.

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