Russian oil exec beats wife who refused to watch movie with him

LONDON - Ratis Gailis, a Russian pipeline magnate, beat up his former wife after she refused to watch a war film with him, a British court heard on Dec. 11.
Gailis, a former Soviet army colonel, flew into a rage after a day of drinking when Vita Kokoreviga failed to accede to his demands.
He smashed property on the Loudwater estate - one of Britain’s most exclusive estates where one in four residents is a millionaire - before headbutting and strangling Miss Kokoreviga.
Gailis, a director of a company which sets up oil pipelines between Russia and Scandinavia, was in the UK on a 180-day business visa.
On July 2, he was at his mother’s home when his former wife turned up.
Gailis, who had mixed prescription drugs with alcohol, grabbed her hand and made her follow him around the house, she told police.
In a statement, she said she realized he was very drunk and there was an argument about loud music, with Gailis being abusive to their daughter.
She said: “He tried to hold my hand and force me to watch a war film I didn’t want to watch.
“He tried to cuddle me and I told him I did not want to watch the film.
“He tried to head butt me. He head butted me again and got my right eye.
“I told the two children to pack and called a taxi.
“I was packing in the bedroom and he said ‘You cannot charge me, no one saw’.”
Hemel Hempstead magistrates heard that as the situation escalated, Gailis picked up a large candle and smashed a glass picture frame.
Miss Kokoreviga then hit Gailis with a wooden sculpture on his back before falling on a sofa.
She said: “He started to strangle me around my neck. I bit his finger and he let me go and I waited in my room until the police arrived.”
Gailis was given a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and made the subject of a restraining order prohibiting contact with his ex-wife for three years.
He was also given an exclusion order, banning him from the borough of Watford, where his wife lives.