Russian oligarch, Kremlin critic Berezovsky dies in Britain

AFP ^ | 03-24-2013 | By Alice Ritchie

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LONDON — Boris Berezovsky, the exiled Russian oligarch and long-time opponent of the Kremlin, died at his home in Britain on Saturday aged 67 in unexplained circumstances, officials said.

British police launched a full investigation into the death at the mansion in the well-heeled commuter town of Ascot, near London, saying it was "currently being treated as unexplained".

Berezovsky's lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky told Russian television the tycoon had committed suicide after suffering from weeks of depression over his huge debts, although another friend strongly denied this.

Berezovsky was one of handful of businessmen who made a fortune out of the privatisation of Russian state assets in the 1990s, and was close with President Vladimir Putin before he took office.

But Putin turned on the oligarchs when he came to power and in 2000 Berezovsky fled to Britain where he claimed political asylum and became one of the president's outspoken critics.

He was at the centre of a group of anti-Kremlin exiles in London which included Alexander Litvinenko, who died of poisoning by radioactive polonium in November 2006.

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