Billionaire Plots New Russian Revolution

London emigre says he's bankrolling coup, conspiring with elites
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 13, 2007 7:27 AM CDT
Billionaire Plots New Russian Revolution
LONDON-- Boris Berezovsky, shown here November 6, 2003, a Russian billionaire living in exile in London, was once a close adviser to ex-president Boris Yeltsin and current president Vladimir Putin. La    (KRT Photos)

An exiled Russian billionaire says he is bankrolling a coup to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin. Boris Berezovsky tells the Guardian: "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he is fomenting a revolution, he responds: "You are absolutely correct."

Berezovsky revels in provoking the Kremlin from his perch in London, where he was granted asylum in 2001.The flamboyant former mathematician made his fortune by buying up assets during Russia's rush to privatization, before a falling-out with Putin forced him to flee. Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy murdered with radioactive poison in London last November, claimed he was ordered to assassinate Berezovsky. (More Russia stories.)

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