Monday, Jan. 26, 2004. Page 1
Berezovsky Is No Longer Berezovsky
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer It's official. Boris Abramovich Berezovsky is now Platon Ilyich Yelenin.
Britain said it has issued documents allowing the wealthy businessman who is wanted in Russia on fraud charges to travel under the new identity.
"Boris Berezovsky ... submitted a statutory declaration formally changing his name to Platon Yelenin, and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate issued a travel document, in accordance with the provisions of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, in that name," Home Secretary David Blunkett said Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
Berezovsky has been living in self-imposed exile in Britain since 2000. Russian prosecutors tried to extradite him to face multimillion-dollar fraud charges, but a London court threw out the case in September when it learned that the British government had granted him asylum.
Berezovsky said Sunday that the new travel documents with Platon Yelenin's name were issued in October at his own request.
"So officially I am now Platon Yelenin, although for any public appearances or contacts with the press I am still Boris Berezovsky," Berezovsky said by telephone from London.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/01/26/003.html