Boris Berezovsky (businessman): Difference between revisions

This article is about the Russian businessman. For the Russian pianist, see Boris Berezovsky (pianist).

Boris Berezovsky

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (Бори́с Абра́мович Березо́вский) (born January 23, 1946) is a Russian-born businessman now living in London, and is known as one of Russia's first billionaires. [1] He moved to the UK in 2001 where he was granted political asylum. In 2003 he legally changed his name to Platon Elenin.

Early life

Berezovsky was born to a Jewish family in Moscow. He studied forestry and then applied mathematics, receiving his doctorate in 1983. He later became a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991 and the chair of a laboratory in its Institute of Control Sciences.

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. The main profit of the company came from the fake export of the Lada cars, which were bought for resale abroad, though in reality sold on the internal market.

During the lawlessness of the early 1990s Berezovsky, like many businessmen, was targeted for extortion by the Russian mafia, which were powerful in Moscow at that time. He survived several assassination attempts. In 1994, as his Mercedes was pulling out of his headquarters, a huge car bomb decapitated Berezovsky's chauffeur but left Berezovsky unharmed. [2]

Political activity

During the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky was among those businessmen who gained access to the president. He used his political connections to acquire stakes in state companies including AutoVAZ itself, state airline Aeroflot, and several oil properties that he organized into Sibneft, paying a 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 and Kommersant.

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 secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Independent States 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 nonetheless supported Vladimir Putin's 2000 presidential campaign.

Exile

Putin did not welcome Berezovsky's views on Chechnya or his political clout and opened investigations into Berezovsky's business activities. Fearing arrest, Berezovsky escaped to London, where he was granted political asylum. He has been charged with fraud and political corruption, but the Russian government has not been able to extradite him. He has strongly criticized the current Russian administration and believes that Putin could stage a coup d'etat rather than leave office in 2009 as the Russian constitution requires.

File:Platon Elenin travel doc.jpg

Alleged travel document on the name of Platon Elenin

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, which provoked 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. [3] In 2005, Neil Bush met with Berezovsky in Latvia. The meeting caused tension between that country and Russia due to Berezovsky's fugitive status. [4] Neil Bush has also been seen in Berezovsky's box at the Emirates Stadium, a British soccer stadium, for a game. [5] There has been speculation in the English language Moscow Times that the relationship may cause tension in Russo-American bilateral relations, "especially since Putin has taken pains to build a personal relationship with the U.S. president." [6]

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 the Ukraine.[7]

In January 2006, Berezovsky stated in an interview to a Moscow based radio station that he was working on overthrowing administration of Vladimir Putin by force [8]. In November 2006, Berezovsky accused Putin of ordering the poisoning of FSB defector and fellow dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who also lived in exile in the UK. The two were close associates. [9] Berezovsky said he had no doubts that the Russian authorities were behind the poisoning. [10]

Allegations of corruption

A 1996 Forbes magazine article titled "Godfather of the Kremlin?", by Paul Klebnikov, portrayed Berezovsky as a mafia 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 subsequently became the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes and was murdered in Moscow on July 9, 2004.

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.

See also

• International Foundation for Civil Liberties

External links

• http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/1996/1230/5815090a_7.html
• http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/09/cz_sf_0709klebnikov.html
• Boris Berezovski, the smuggler Voltaire Network, April 26 2004.
• http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_30/b3691184.htm Boris Berezovsky: Tycoon under Siege (int'l edition) July 24 2000.