From London, Berezovsky Openly Plots Violent Overthrow of Putin

APRIL 13, (LPAC)--One of Russia's nastiest exiled oligarchs, Boris Berezovsky, is openly bankrolling and fomenting violent revolution against the Putin government. Berezovsky made his role in the attempt to overthrow the Russian government public in an interview today with the London Guardian newspaper. Berezovsky, who has been living in exile in London since 2001, 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." When the Guardian reporters who interviewed Berezovsky, Ian Cobain, Matthew Taylor and Luke Harding, directly asked him if he was fomenting revolution, he responded, "you are absolutely correct." Pressed to provide details, Berezovsky refused to elaborate; however, he asserted that he had people on his payroll inside the Putin camp.

The Putin government wasted no time in responding to the Berezovsky provocations. Kremlin chief spokesmantold reporters that Berezovsky's comments were "being treated as a crime," adding that the Russian government believed that the British authorities would "never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia." A year ago, Berezovsky made similar remarks in a radio interview in Moscow, which he did from London, but a British court rebuffed Russian extradition requests.

This time, however, Berezovsky apparently realized, after the fact, that his Guardian interview had crossed the line. In a statement later in the day, Berezovsky attempted to backtrack, claiming that he was not advocating violence, just "direct action" like the so-called Rainbow Revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine--both of which were run with the backing of Western governments and well-financed NGOs. Berezovsky's claims that he was not advocating any violence were further undermined by the fact that he has been notorious for more than a decade as a major covert financier of the Chechen rebels who have carried out a string of major terrorist attacks in Moscow and Chechnya. Berezovsky's "correction" was also discredited when the Guardian posted audio extracts from the interview on their website today, along with the interview, and in his own voice, he could be heard promoting violent action against Putin.