Russian Tycoon Berezovsky Dies in London

Self-exiled Russian businessman and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky has died in his Surrey home at the age of 67. The precise cause of his death is not yet known. British police opened an investigation and are treating Berezovsky’s death as “unexplained” for now. Under President Boris Yeltsin, Boris Berezovsky had been known as Russia’s “kingmaker.” He was a trusted figure at the very heart of the Kremlin and was central to Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in the late 1990s. After Putin took office, however, Berezovsky’s relationship with the Kremlin quickly soured. In 2001, he fled to France and then on to the UK. The Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him the following year on charges of money-laundering and illegal business activity. In January 2004, British media reported UK Home Office confirmation that he had been granted political asylum in the country and issued a UK passport in the name of Platon Elenin. President Putin has been informed of Berezovsky's death, the president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russia 24 TV network. Peskov also said that Berezovsky had written to Putin “perhaps a couple of months ago,” asking forgiveness for the mistakes he had made and “requesting permission to return to the motherland.” Experts in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies conducting a search at the British property where Berezovsky was found dead gave the scene the "all clear."

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