-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: April 13, 2007 7:45:54 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "Mob Boss" Berezovsky At It Again
Police probe exile's claims about [plotting] Russian 'revolution'
Ian Cobain, Ian Black and Luke Harding in Moscow
The Guardian (UK), April 14, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2057150,00.html
Police in Britain and Russia launched separate inquiries into the
multimillionaire Boris Berezovsky yesterday after he disclosed to
the Guardian that he was plotting a "revolution" to overthrow
President Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, where investigators said they
were opening a criminal investigation into the tycoon's calls for
the use of force to secure regime change, infuriated government
ministers demanded that he be stripped of his refugee status and
extradited to stand trial.
In London, detectives from Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command
began studying recordings of the Berezovsky interview after they
were posted on the Guardian Unlimited website. They are looking to
see whether he has committed any offence and to establish whether
there are grounds to revoke his refugee status.
In Washington state department officials were also known to be
studying the businessman's repeated assertions that force must be
used to get rid of Mr Putin.
In comments which appeared to be calculated to enrage the Kremlin,
Mr Berezovsky told the Guardian: "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 added that he was in contact with like-minded people within
Russia's ruling inner circle, offering advice, finance, and "my
understanding of how it could be done".
Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he replied:
"You are absolutely correct, absolutely correct."
Yesterday Mr Berezovsky was quoted by the Bloomberg news agency as
saying: "I am calling for revolution and revolution is always
violent." The Associated Press reported that the tycoon added: "I
don't know how it will happen, but authoritarian regimes only
collapse by force."
Later he appeared to be anxious to retreat from that position,
issuing a statement in which he said he was seeking a "bloodless"
revolution. "I do support direct action, I do not advocate or
support violence," he said.
It appeared to be too late, however, with officials in Britain and
Russia already determined to investigate his comments.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The police will be looking at the
statements he has made in the Guardian and elsewhere."
The Foreign Office added: "We deplore any call for the violent
overthrow of a sovereign state. We expect everyone living, working
or visiting the UK, whatever their status, to obey our laws. We
will look carefully at these and any future statements by Mr
Berezovsky in that light."
Ministers were being kept informed of developments, but officials
said it was inconceivable that the police would not look into a
statement of that kind, as they evidently would if it had been
made, for example, by an Islamist figure or group. The Home Office
would also be examining the remarks to see if they constituted
grounds to revoke refugee status granted under the 1951 UN convention.
In Moscow, Russia's prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, said a fresh
attempt would be made to have Mr Berezovsky extradited from the UK.
He said he had ordered his lawyers to draw up an international
legal request. This would urge British authorities to give their
own legal assessment of Mr Berezovsky's remarks. Prosecutor Marina
Gridneva confirmed: "We will again raise the question of stripping
Berezovsky of his refugee status and extraditing him to Russia."
Other senior Kremlin figures went further and suggested that Mr
Berezovsky had breached the strict conditions of his refugee
status, which allowed him to stay in Britain. "There are a lot of
good lawyers in London," said Russia's foreign minister, Sergei
Lavrov. "Appeals to overthrow the political authorities in another
country give a valid reason for taking the required legal measures."
Russia had been asking the British authorities "to put an end to
the situation, in which Berezovsky enjoys the status of a political
refugee, yet blatantly abuses this status and takes actions that
require extradition according to British law", Mr Lavrov said.
In his Guardian interview the tycoon claimed he was already
bankrolling people close to the president who were conspiring
against him. His remarks set off a storm in Russia, where the
state-controlled TV stations led reports on the Guardian interview
and a host of pro-Kremlin MPs queued up to denounce him.
Mr Berezovsky, 61, made his fortune, currently estimated at around
£850m, during the Boris Yeltsin years, when he bought state assets
at knockdown prices during Russia's rush towards privatisation.
Although he played a key role in ensuring Mr Putin's victory in the
2000 presidential elections, the two men fell out as the newly
elected leader successfully wrested control of Russia back from the
so-called oligarchy, the small group of tycoons who had come to
dominate the country's economy. A few months after the election Mr
Berezovsky fled Russia, and applied successfully for asylum in the UK.
Two previous Russian attempts to extradite him to stand trial in
Moscow have failed after judges in London ruled that he cannot be
forced to leave the country as long as he enjoys refugee status.
The latest Russian request is likely to place further pressure on
the Foreign Office at a time when British-Russian relations are
already under strain because of the unsolved murder last year in
London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former employee of Mr Berezovsky.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters are expected to take part in
anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg today and
tomorrow.
Last month police in St Petersburg violently dispersed a rally by
5,000 people. It was the largest demonstration against the Kremlin
regime since Mr Putin became president in 2000.
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