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Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (Template:Lang-ru) (born January 23, 1946), was an oligarch, media tycoon and politician during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. After the ascent of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency, he went into opposition and later fled to the United Kingdom where he was granted political asylum. In the UK, he became associated with Akhmed Zakayev, Alexander Litvinenko and Alex Goldfarb in what has become known as the London Circle of Russian exiles. He is a founder of International Foundation for Civil Liberties.

Early life and scientific research

Berezovsky was born in Moscow. His father was Jewish. He studied forestry and then applied mathematics, receiving his doctorate in 1983. He did research on Optimization and Control theory, publishing 16 books and articles between 1975 and 1989. He became a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991, and the chair of a laboratory in its Institute of Control Sciences. His Erdős number is 4.

Business career

Berezovsky started in business in 1989 under perestroika by buying and reselling automobiles from state manufacturer AutoVAZ. Officially, Berezovsky was called upon as an expert in development of optimized system of management of the enterprise. In 1992, a new middleman company, "LogoVAZ", was created with Berezovsky as its president. LogoVAZ became an exclusive consignment dealer of AutoVAZ, enabling a scheme (named "ReExport") in which cars were sold abroad and then bought back for sale on the internal market. Frequently cars also were not exported at all - all operations on export and import remained only on paper. Each car going through this scheme brought dealers an income of up to USD 1,500.

In May 1994, Berezovsky became head of the notorious Automobile All-Russia alliance "АVVА" ("АВВА" in Russian Cyrillic) and became known as the initiator of "the national car" project. This enterprise turned out to be merely a financial pyramid scheme. Shares of a nonexistent factory which has never been constructed were sold. On the data published in the Russian mass-media, the loss incurred by investors totalled USD 50 million.

He survived several assassination attempts, including one in 1994, when a car bomb decapitated the chauffeur of his Mercedes 600 SEL. Berezovsky was not injured, although he was in the rear seat of the vehicle.

Political activity

During the 1991-1999 presidency of Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky was among the businessmen who gained special access to the president. He used his political clout to acquire stakes in state companies including AutoVAZ itself, the state airline Aeroflot, and several oil properties that he organized into Sibneft, paying a mere fraction of the companies' book values. Berezovsky established a bank to finance his operations and acquired several news media holdings as well. These media holdings provided essential support for Yeltsin's re-election in 1996. Berezovsky's holdings included the television channels ORT and TV6, along with the newspapers Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Novye Izvestiya, Kommersant and national-patriotic Zavtra.

Berezovsky is a leading proponent of political and economic liberalization in Russia. He has frequently entered into politics by investing in the liberal media, financing liberal candidates, making political statements, and even seeking office himself. He was briefly executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and later a member of the Duma. Berezovsky had strong ties with Chechens through their Moscow diaspora connections. According to Ramzan Kadyrov, Berezovsky was strongly opposed to the Second Chechen War but nevertheless supported Vladimir Putin's 2000 presidential campaign. On June 15, 2000, The Times reported that Spanish police discovered Putin had secretly visited a villa in Spain belonging to Berezovsky on up to five different occasions in 1999.

In the position of the deputy secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Berezovsky was also involved in talks with terrorists on freeing hostages as a mediator and allegedly transferred large sums of money in exchange for hostages. In 1997, he delivered $2 million of governmental money in cash to Shamil Basayev who was then in charge of reconstruction of Chechnya. Berezovsky said that "we saved at least fifty people, who otherwise would have been killed; most of them were simple soldiers. And believe me, all of this was strictly official, with the full knowledge and consent of the Kremlin." However Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov accused Berezovsky and Russian government of collusion with the hostage-takers.

According to Alex Goldfarb, Berezovsky secured Putin's appointment to Prime Minister position as a result of a secret agreement, where Putin promised his loyalty to Yeltsin and his closest circle including Berezovsky himself. However Putin later broke the agreement, when he was infuriated by the critical coverage of Russian submarine Kursk explosion by Russian ORT TV channel owned by Berezovsky. Putin forced Berezovsky to sell his ORT shares, partly in exchange for promising to free Nikolai Glushkov, a former manager of Aeroflot company and close associate of Berezovsky, according to Goldfarb.

Berezovsky admitted that he had a conversation with Deputy Prime Minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Movladi Udugov in 1999, six months before the beginning of Dagestan invasion. Udugov proposed to start the Dagestan war to provoke the Russian response, topple the Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and establish new Islamic republic of Basayev-Udugov that would be friendly to Russia. Berezovsky asserted that he refused the offer, but "Udugov and Basayev conspired with Stepashin and Putin to provoke a war to topple Maskhadov..., but the agreement was for the Russian army to stop at the Terek River. However, Putin double-crossed the Chechens and started an all-out war" . A transcript of the phone conversation between Berezovsky and Udugov was leaked to one of Moscow tabloids on September 10 1999.

Exile in Britain

Russia neither welcomed Berezovsky's views on Chechnya, nor his political clout and opened investigations into Berezovsky's business activities. Fearing arrest, Berezovsky fled to London in 2001, where he was granted political asylum. He has been charged with fraud and political corruption, but the Russian government has been unable to get him extradited. From his new home in the U.K., he has strongly criticized the current Russian administration.

In 2003 Boris Berezovsky formally changed his name to Platon Elenin ("Platon" being Russian for Plato, and Elena is the name of his wife) in the British courts. No reason has been given - but Platon is the name of the lead character in a film Tycoon based on his life. In December 2003 he was allowed to travel under his new name to Georgia, provoking a row between Russia and Georgia.

In recent years, Berezovsky has gone into business with Neil Bush, the younger brother of U.S. President George W. Bush. Berezovsky has been an investor in Bush's Ignite! Learning, an educational software corporation, since at least 2003. In 2005, Neil Bush met with Berezovsky in Latvia, causing tension with Russia due to Berezovsky's fugitive status. Neil Bush has also been seen in Berezovsky's box at the Emirates Stadium, the home of British soccer club Arsenal F.C., for a game. There has been speculation in the English language Moscow Times that the relationship may cause tension in Russo-American bilateral relations.

Activities in Ukraine

In September 2005, soon after the Ukrainian government led by prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was dismissed by president Viktor Yushchenko, former president of the Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk accused Berezovsky of financing Yushchenko's presidential election campaign, and provided copies of documents showing money transfers from companies he said are controlled by Berezovsky to companies controlled by Yuschenko's official backers. Berezovsky has confirmed that he met Yushchenko's representatives in London before the election, and that the money was transferred from his companies, but he refused to confirm or deny that the companies that received the money were used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine.

In September 2007, Berezovsky launched lawsuits against two Ukrainian politicians, Oleksandr Tretyakov, a former presidential aid, and David Zhvaniya, a former emergencies minister. Berezovsky is suing the men for nearly $23 million US, accusing them of misusing the money he had allocated in 2004 to fund the Orange Revolution.

Controversial statements

In January 2006, Berezovsky stated in an interview to a Moscow based radio station that he was working on overthrowing the administration of Vladimir Putin by force.

On April 13, 2007, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Berezovsky declared that he is plotting a new Russian revolution to overthrow the regime of Vladimir Putin by financing important people in Putin's administration: "We need to use force to change this regime. It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." He also admitted that during the last six years he struggled much to "destroy the positive image of Putin" and tried to portray him whenever possible as a dangerously anti-democratic figure.

Berezovsky also told the Associated Press by telephone in Britain, "Putin has created an authoritarian regime against the Russian constitution. (...) I don't know how it will happen, but authoritarian regimes only collapse by force."

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has launched a criminal investigation against Berezovsky to find whether his comments can be considered a "seizure of power by force", as outlined in the Russian Criminal Code. If convicted, an offender is facing up to 20 years of imprisonment.

The British Foreign Office has denounced Berezovsky's statements, warning him that his status of a political refugee may be reconsidered, should he continue to make similar remarks. Furthermore, Scotland Yard has announced that it will investigate whether Berezovsky's statements are in violation of the law.

Other Russia response

Soon after Berezovsky's statement (see above), Garry Kasparov, an important figure of The Other Russia and leader of the United Civil Front political movement, wrote the following on his official website:

Berezovsky has lived in emigration for many years and no longer has significant influence upon the political processes which take place in Russian society. His extravagant proclamations are simply a method of attracting attention. Furthermore, for the overwhelming majority of Russians he is a political symbol of the 90s, one of the "bad blokes" enriching themselves behind the back of president Yeltsin. The informational noise around Berezovsky is specifically beneficial for the Kremlin, which is trying to compromise Russia's real opposition. Berezovsky has not had and does not have any relation to Other Russia or the United Civil Front.

Berezovsky responded in June 2007 by saying that "there is not one significant politician in Russia whom he has not financed" and that this included members of Other Russia. The managing director of the United Civil Front, in turn, said that the organization would consider suing Berezovsky over these allegations.

Alleged and reported assassination attempts in London

Alleged 2003 plot

In November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, an associate of Berezovsky's who was a FSB defector and a British citizen, died after he was fatally poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210. Before his death Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his murder, and British police believes he was killed by Andrei Lugovoy, a millionaire and former Russian intelligence officer. Berezovsky also accused Putin of ordering the poisoning of his fellow dissident and close associate Litvinenko, saying had no doubts that Russian authorities were behind the poisoning.

According to Alex Goldfarb, another Russian SVR agent in London was making preparations to assassinate Berezovsky with a binary weapon in September 2003. This alleged plot was discovered by then alive Alexander Litvinenko and reported to British police. However, in a statement to the House of Commons, Hazel Blears, then a Home Office Minister, said that inquiries made were "unable to either substantiate this information or find evidence of any criminal offences having been committed".

Reported 2007 plot

In June 2007 Berezovsky fled Britain on the advice of Scotland Yard, amid reports that he was the target of an assassination attempt by a suspected Russian hitman. On July 18 2007 the alleged would-be assassin was captured by the police at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane. The suspect, arrested by the anti-terrorist police after being tracked for a week by MI5, was deported back to Russia when no weapons were found and there was not enough evidence to charge him with any offence. In addition, British police placed a squad of uniformed officers around the Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev's house in north London, and also phoned Litvinenko's widow, Marina, to urge her to take greater security precautions.

Berezovsky said he was told the assassin would be someone he knew, who would shoot him in the head and then surrender to the police. He again accused Vladimir Putin of being behind a plot to assassinate him. The Kremlin has denied similar claims in the past.

According to the Guardian, there is speculation that Berezovsky leaked details of the alleged attempt to kill him to the media to antagonise Moscow, once the British authorities had returned the suspected killer to Moscow. The timing of the story has also been seen as suspicious, coming in the middle of a row over Britain's attempts to charge a Russian businessman, Andrei Lugovoi, with Litvinenko's murder.

Allegations of corruption and subversive activity

Litigation with Forbes

A 1996 Forbes magazine article titled Godfather of the Kremlin?, by the Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov, portrayed Berezovsky as a mafiya boss who had his rivals murdered. Berezovsky sued the magazine for libel, and the dispute was ultimately settled with the magazine retracting both claims. Klebnikov expanded the article into a book, Godfather of the Kremlin, that Berezovsky did not contest in court. Klebnikov was eventually murdered in 2004.

Russian arrest warrant

After his self-exile, prosecutors in Russia had accused Berezovsky of a host of crimes, including fraud and preparing a violent overthrow of Putin's government. Berezovsky denies all the allegations. On September 5, 2007, a trial in absentia began in Moscow. Berezovsky is accused of embezzling money from the Russian airline carrier Aeroflot in the 1990s.

Allegations of handling and money laundering

Boris Berezovsky has been investigated by the Swiss financial authorities since 1999 for money laundering and membership of a criminal organization. In 2003, the Swiss Bundesanwaltschaft started a criminal case against Berezovsky and, amongst others, Nikolai Glushkov, for money laundering through the Swiss firms Ovaco AG, situated at the Monbijoustrasse in Bern, and Anros SA in the Lausanne World Trade Center. Berezovsky claimed the proceedings were motivated by antisemitism. In December 2006, as news broke of the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the Bundesanwaltschaft announced that its investigations against Boris Berezovsky were still continuing.

On July 12, 2007, a Brazilian judge issued an arrest warrant for Berezovsky and a number of other British and Brazilian suspects in connection with an investigation against the Media Sports Investments group, which is suspected of money laundering. Berezovsky is accused of being the main financial backer of MSI. Since Berezovsky, Iranian-born Kia Joorabchian and Noyan Bedru were not in Brazil at the time, warrants for their arrest were forwarded to Interpol. Berezovsky dismissed the Brazilian investigation as a part of the Kremlin's "politicized campaign" against him.

In August 2007, the Russian Deputy Prosecutor General announced that the Dutch tax police had visited Moscow in connection with a handling and money laudering case involving Berezovsky. As Russian media were claiming that a criminal case had been initiated against Berezovsky in the Netherlands on a charge of money laundering, the Dutch prosecuting office or "Openbaar Ministerie" hastened to announce that Boris Berezovsky was not the object of any criminal investigation in the Netherlands and Berezovsky responded by saying that he had no business in the Netherlands. Several Dutch newspapers counterclaimed that the name Boris Berezovsky was in fact mentioned in the handling and money laundering dossier , to which the Dutch prosecution officers in function refused to comment.

See also

• International Foundation for Civil Liberties
• List of Russian billionaires
• Vladislav Listyev

References

1. Communist Party Leader Attacks Jews. The Washington Post, December 25, 1998
2. ^ Jordan, Mary (December 9 2006). "Russian Billionaire's Bitter Feud With Putin A Plot Line in Poisoning". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-12-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. Tremlett, Giles (June 15 2000). "Leader's secret holidays to Spain". The Times. Retrieved 2007-04-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
4. Chechen leaders deplore dismissal of Berezovskiy, NUPI, 07.11.1997
5. ^ Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, The Free Press (2007) ISBN 1-416-55165-4
6. ^ Alex Goldfarb, with Marina Litvinenko Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, The Free Press, 2007, ISBN 1-416-55165-4, page 216.
7. "Death of a Dissident", page 189.
8. Berezovsky, Neil Bush, Latvian businessmen meet, Times, Sep 23, 2005
9. Berezovsky and Bush's brother in the crowd at the Emirates, The Guardian, September 5, 2006
10. Berezovsky Teams Up With Bush's Brother, The Moscow Times, Ocober 06, 2005
11. Two Our Ukraine lawmakers summoned to court upon Berezovskiy`s lawsuit, UNIAN, September 3, 2007.
12. 'I am plotting a new Russian revolution', The Guardian, April 13, 2007
13. Kremlin foe calls for Putin's Ouster, Yahoo! News, April 13, 2007.
14. Scotland Yard to Examine Berezovsky’s Interview, Kommersant, April 14, 2007.
15. Новые подробности по Маршу несогласных.
17. ^ Security services ‘foil plot to kill Berezovsky at the London Hilton’, The Times, July 18, 2007
18. ^ Police Back Berezovsky Murder Story, The Moscow Times, July 19, 2007
19. Putin tried to kill my friend, claims Russian billionaire, The Telegraph, 19/11/2006
20. The plot to kill Boris Berezovsky, The Independent, 29 November 2007
21. ^ Police feared assassination for two Russian dissidents, The Guardian, July 22, 2007
22. Boris Berezovsky: 'Putin behind plot to kill me', The Telegraph, 23/07/200
23. "Berezovsky embezzlement trial starts in Moscow", Forbes, September 5, 2007.
24. "King of Intrigue", article by Daniel Ammann in the Weltwoche, Switzerland, 2003.
25. "Bundesanwaltschaft has been proceeding against Berezovsky for three years", 20 Minuten, Switzerland, 2006.
26. "Arrest order issued for Tevez's agent accused of money laundering", The Guardian, July 13, 2007.
27. "Berezovsky links Brazilian arrest order to Kremlin'", Reuters, July 13, 2007.
28. "Berezovsky prosecuted in Holland", Kommersant, August 29, 2007.
29. "Name of Berezovsky is indeed mentioned in the dossier", Haarlems dagblad, August 30, 2007.

External links

• Boris Berezovski, the smuggler, Voltaire Network, April 26 2004.
• Boris Berezovsky: Tycoon under Siege, BusinessWeek, July 24 2000.
• London exile Berezovsky says force necessary to bring down President Putin
• Police probe exile's claims about Russian 'revolution'
• Britain counts cost of diplomatic furore over Berezovsky
• Berezovsky, Boris (2005). Putin Is Terrorist Number One
• Berezovsky, Boris (2004). Putin Restores Soviet-Style Power

• Misplaced Pages articles needing factual verification from August 2007
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