In what can be termed as one of the biggest payments ever to be ordered by a judge in an open court hearing, a British court on Thursday ordered a Russian billionaire to pay his wife $584 million in a divorce settlement.

The judge, Justice Haddon-Cave, said the couple met and married in Moscow before moving in a home in Surrey in southern England, Xinhua news agency reported. According to a Sky News report, the award -- which amounts to 41.5 per cent of the couple's "marital assets" -- could be the biggest ever ordered in Britain.