Exiled Russian Tycoon Wants to Move to Ukraine
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Yushchenko vs. Yanukovych/Ukraine election ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Posted on 01/29/2005 6:08:41 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), wants to leave Britain, where he has been given political asylum, and move to Ukraine, media quoted him as saying on Saturday.
Berezovsky, one of Russia's once-mighty and hugely wealthy "oligarchs," voiced his intention just days after the inauguration of Ukraine's new President Viktor Yushchenko, a Western-leaning liberal whose candidacy Putin publicly opposed.
"Yes, I want to move to Kiev," Berezovsky told Interfax news agency. "I don't want to do business in Kiev, I just want to live there."
A powerful Kremlin insider under ex-President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, Berezovsky lives in exile in London and wants to stir an opposition movement against Putin -- a man Berezovsky says he helped Yeltsin to pick as his successor.
In an interview with news Web site gazeta.ru, he said he was confident Ukraine's new leadership would not extradite him to Moscow, where he is wanted for fraud and embezzlement.
"There is the Geneva Convention on political refugees. This convention was signed by many countries, including Ukraine," said Berezovsky, who often travels under a fake name.
"I officially received refugee status in Britain and have the right to go to any country that signed this convention and be guaranteed that I will not be extradited to a country that does not abide by law," he added.
Yushchenko, speaking at the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos, Switzerland, said he was not aware of Berezovsky's request
"One thing is sure. We will be acting in strict compliance with domestic and international laws...in this context," he told reporters.
Yushchenko, elected in December, has pledged to work toward Ukraine's greater integration with Western Europe while maintaining good ties with neighboring Russia. Putin had publicly backed his more pro-Moscow opponent in the election but later acknowledged Yushchenko's victory.
Berezovsky sees Moscow's campaign against him as part of Putin's drive to subdue the "oligarchs" of the 1990s -- men who made fortunes in the privatization of state assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Berezovsky said he would to move to the Ukrainian capital in the next few months.
The Ukraine doesn't have any oil or gas?
/pipelines
Ping!
Exiled Russian Tycoon Wants to Move to Ukraine
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Yushchenko vs. Yanukovych/Ukraine election ping list!. . .don't be shy.
I don't think he would exactly be the best neighbor.
Just don't criticize him or his ilk or you'll end up like the Forbes editor in St. Petersburge. The man published a book detailing how Berezovsky and his ilk made their money and two months later he's gunned down.
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