Berezovsky charged with coup plot over Guardian interview
In pictures: Russia’s oligarchs
Luke Harding in Moscow, The Guardian, 3 July 2007
Russia has charged the exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky with conspiring to seize power on the basis of an interview he gave to the Guardian in April calling for a violent revolution in Russia.
Mr Berezovsky’s lawyer, Andrei Borovkov, said that the London-based former oligarch faced new charges of attempting to stage a coup against Vladimir Putin. The Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic security agency, charged him yesterday on the basis of an interview he gave to the Guardian on April 13. In it, the tycoon claimed he was plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain. In comments which appeared deliberately calculated to infuriate the Kremlin, Mr Berezovsky said he was bankrolling people close to the president who were conspiring to mount a palace coup.
“We need to use force to change this regime,” he said. “It isn’t possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure.” Asked if he was in effect fomenting a revolution, he said: “You are absolutely correct.”
BBC Presents Russian Godfathers
Directed by Patrick Forbes (2005)
Berezovsky’s claim to have installed Viktor Yushchenko as president of Ukraine is examined in the following segment.