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"Dobbiamo usare la forza per cambiare questo regime. Non è possibile cambiarlo con i metodi democratici. Non ci può essere alcun cambiamento senza forza, senza esercitare pressioni". Sono le parole dell’ex oligarca russo Boris Berezovsky al quotidiano britannico Guardian.
Protagonista della prima fase delle privatizzazioni a Mosca all'inizio degli anni novanta, sostenitore e finanziatore della rielezione di Boris Eltsin a Presidente nel 1996, Berezovsky ammette il suo impegno per organizzare un colpo di stato in Russia contro il presidente Vladimir Putin.

"Non vi è alcuna possibilità che il regime cambi con le elezioni. L'unico modo di cambiare un regime in Russia è quello di un disaccordo fra le elite politiche del Paese. Questo è quanto sto cercando di fare", ha quindi spiegato assicurando di aver messo a disposizione dei suoi contatti la sua "esperienza e
ideologia", oltre che "la sua proposta per il come portarlo a termine".
"Sto anche facendo passi concreti, la maggior parte dei quali di ordine finanziario", conclude.

Il portavoce del Cremlino, Dmitry Peskov, ha subito detto che "la legge russa considera le dichiarazioni di Berezovsky come un reato. Le autorità britanniche dovranno interrogare a questo proposito Berezovsky. Vogliamo credere che Londra non concederà asilo a una persona che vuole usare la forza per cambiare il regime in Russia".
Anche il ministro degli esteri russo Sergey Lavrov ha chiesto a Londra di privare l'ex oligarca Boris Berezovsky dello status di rifugiato politico.

Fonte: Rainews24

Inserisco l'intervista di Boris Berezovsky presa direttamente dal sito internet del giornale britannico Guardian (prima parte):

The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia's ruling elite.
In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are 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 effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."
Although Mr Berezovsky, with an estimated fortune of £850m, may have the means to finance such a plot, and although he enjoyed enormous political influence in Russia before being forced into exile, he said he could not provide details to back up his claims because the information was too sensitive.

Last night the Kremlin denounced Mr Berezovsky's comments as a criminal offence which it believed should undermine his refugee status in the UK.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's chief spokesman, said: "In accordance with our legislation [his remarks are] being treated as a crime. It will cause some questions from the British authorities to Mr Berezovsky. We want to believe that official London will never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia."

It will not be the first time the British government has faced accusations from the Kremlin that it is providing a safe haven for Mr Berezovsky. When he told a Moscow radio station last year that he wanted to see Mr Putin overthrown by force, Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, told the Commons that "advocating the violent overthrow of a sovereign state is unacceptable" and warned the tycoon he could be stripped of his refugee status.

Fonte: Guardian ( Gran Bretagna)

Seconda parte :

Russian authorities subsequently sent an extradition request to London. That failed, however, when a district judge ruled Mr Berezovsky could not be extradited as long as he has asylum status.
In an interview with the Guardian, however, Mr Berezovsky goes much further than before, claiming to be in close contact with members of Russia's political elite who, he says, share his view that Mr Putin is damaging Russia by rolling back democratic reforms, smothering opposition, centralising power and flouting the country's constitution.
"There is no chance of regime change through democratic elections," he says. "If one part of the political elite disagrees with another part of the political elite - that is the only way in Russia to change the regime. I try to move that."

While declining to describe these contacts - and alleging that they would be murdered if they were identified - he maintained that he was offering his "experience and ideology" to members of the country's political elite, as well as "my understanding of how it could be done". He added: "There are also practical steps which I am doing now, and mostly it is financial."
Mr Berezovsky said he was unconcerned by any threat to strip him of his refugee status. "Straw wasn't in a position to take that decision. A judge in court said it wasn't in the jurisdiction of Straw."
He added that there was even less chance of such a decision being taken following the polonium-210 poisoning last November of his former employee, Alexander Litvinenko. "Today the reality is different because of the Litvinenko case."

Mr Berezovsky, 61, a former mathematician, turned to business during the Yeltsin years and made his fortune by capturing state assets at knockdown prices during Russia's rush towards privatisation.
Although he played a key role in ensuring Mr Putin's victory in the 2000 presidential elections, the two men fell out as the newly elected leader successfully wrested control of Russia back from the so-called oligarchy, the small group of tycoons who had come to dominate the country's economy.
A few months after the election Mr Berezovsky fled Russia, and applied successfully for asylum in the UK after Mr Litvinenko, an officer with the KGB's successor, the FSB, came forward to say he had been ordered to murder the tycoon.

Mr Berezovsky changed his name to Platon Elenin, Platon being the name of a character in a Russian film based loosely upon his life. He was subsequently given a British passport in this name.
As well as claiming to be financing and encouraging coup plotters in Moscow, Mr Berezovsky said he had dedicated much of the last six years to "trying to destroy the positive image of Putin" that many in the west held, portraying him whenever possible as a dangerously anti-democratic figure. He said he had also opposed the Russian president through Kommersant, the influential Russian newspaper which he controlled until last year.
Last month Mr Berezovsky was questioned by two detectives from the Russian prosecutor general's office who were in London to investigate the death of Mr Litvinenko. He has denied claims that he refused to answer many of their questions.
Last night the Kremlin said Russian authorities might want to question him again in the light of his interview with the Guardian. "I now believe our prosecutor general's office has got lots of questions for Mr Berezovsky," said Mr Peskov. He added: "His words are very interesting. This is a very sensitive issue."
The Foreign Office said it had nothing to add to Mr Straw's comments of last year.

Fonte: Guardian (Gran Bratagna)

Ecco una scheda su Boris Berezovsky:

Boris Berezovsky's name in Russia is irrevocably linked to the "wild capitalism" of the 1990s, when vast fortunes were made out of privatising state assets and Kremlin connections which ensured the lowest of knock down prices.
Russian prosecutors have tried and failed to extradite the billionaire oligarch from London on charges connected to that era. He and an associate were accused of defrauding the Samara region of 60bn roubles (£8m), in used Ladas
Mr Berezovsky claimed the charges were politically motivated and they were later dropped in Russia.
Mr Berezovsky pursued a libel case in Britain against Forbes magazine after its reporter Paul Klebnikov, an American journalist from a Russian emigre family, tried to link the oligarch to the assassination of a prominent television journalist Vladislav Listyev. The case was settled when Forbes accepted the allegations were false.

Much of the stigma from which Mr Berezovsky suffers in Russia dates from his connections with The Family, the clique of advisers around former president Boris Yeltsin, who made personal fortunes from a period where no rules seemed to have applied.

Mr Berezovsky claimed in a previous interview with The Guardian that he got " not one penny" from his connections with Mr Yeltsin and his daughter Tatiana Dyachenko.

But what is left of Russia's democratic opposition well remembers the political service that Mr Berezovsky delivered in taking over 36% of the main television channel's voting stock in 1995. The channel, ORT became the chief engine of Mr Yeltsin's re-election campaign in 1996, in which the choice to the electorate was presented as one between the Reds and the Whites, a reference to Russia's bloody civil war which polarised the race and squeezed out democratic alternatives to Mr Yeltsin.

Russian analysts say the seeds of Kremlin's control of the media, were laid then. This is one of pillars of the autocracy of Vladimir Putin, a man that Mr Berezovsky initially backed but subsequently broke with when he moved to rein in the oligarchs who had profited so under the old regime.

Fonte: Guardian (Gran Bretagna)

Ecco l'articolo su Berezovsky dal giornale francese Le Monde:

Le milliardaire russe Boris Berezovski a assuré qu'il préparait une révolution pour renverser le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, dans une interview publiée vendredi 13 avril par le quotidien The Guardian. Selon M. Berezovski, qui vit depuis 2003 en exil à Londres, "il n'est pas possible de changer ce régime par des moyens démocratiques" et donc, ajoute-t-il, "il n'y aura pas de changement sans force ni pression". Interrogé par le journal britannique sur le fait de savoir s'il fomentait une révolution, il a répondu : "Vous avez parfaitement raison".
L'homme d'affaires, qui a fait fortune grâce aux privatisations des années 1990, dit être en contact avec des membres de l'élite politique russe. Sans les citer pour ne pas mettre leur vie en danger, explique-t-il, il affirme que ceux-ci partagent son opinion sur l'érosion démocratique, la centralisation du pouvoir et les violations de la Constitution dont il accuse M. Poutine. Il a ajouté qu'afin de renverser le régime, il offrait à ces contacts non seulement son "expérience et son idéologie", mais aussi un financement.

Le porte-parole de M. Poutine, Dmitri Peskov, a qualifié les propos tenus par M. Berezovski de "crime", ajoutant " [vouloir] croire que Londres ne pourra jamais accorder officiellement l'asile à quelqu'un qui veut employer la force pour renverser un régime en Russie". La Grande-Bretagne a jusqu'alors toujours rejeté les demandes d'extradition réitérées de Moscou.
La semaine précédente, M. Berezovski avait indiqué vouloir poursuivre la chaîne publique russe Rossia pour un reportage l'incriminant dans la mort de l'ex-agent du KGB, Alexandre Litvinenko, empoisonné au polonium 210 à Londres. Le récit suggérait que M. Berezovski avait gagné l'asile politique en Grande-Bretagne grâce à un faux témoignage et essayait à présent d'éliminer les témoins gênants.

Fonte: Le Monde ( Francia)

Dall'esilio dorato di Londra, l'oligarca russo Boris Berezovski torna a far arrabbiare il Cremlino, dicendo che il presidente Vladimir Putin va cacciato con la forza.
Poi rettifica: "Non propongo soluzioni violente - dice - ma è chiaro che i mezzi democratici non bastano."
Indignata la reazione di Mosca. Il ministro degli esteri, Sergei Lavrov, ha chiesto al governo Blair di revocare l'asilo politico al dissidente espatriato, che già in passato non ha perso occasioni per criticare il Cremlino.
"Lo status di cui gode a Londra - ha detto Lavrov - gli consente di perseguire attività per le quali anche la legge britannica prevede l'estradizione".
Il Foreign office, dal canto suo, prende le distanze dall'intervista di Berezovski pubblicata sul Guardian. Un portavoce precisa che Londra condanna ogni azione violenta finalizzata a rovesciare le istituzioni di uno stato sovrano.
Troppo poco per accontentare il Cremlino, tanto più che già in passato il governo Blair si era rifiutato di estradare Berezovski.
Per Putin è l'ennesimo sassolino nella scarpa, alla vigilia di un fine settimana che si annuncia intenso. A Mosca sono attese infatti diverse manifestazioni: a favore, ma soprattutto contro il presidente russo, accusato di erodere le libertà democratiche.

Fonte: Euronews

Sintesi di un articolo di oggi del Corriere della Sera:

A rischio lo status di rifugiato. La difesa: non era un incitamento alla violenza

Mosca chiede a Londra l’estradizione dell’ex oligarca

Di fronte a una nuova richiesta di estradizione, anche il governo di Londra appare preoccupato, viste le affermazioni di Berezovskij. Così un portavoce del Foreign Office ha detto che il comportamento dell’oligarca viene attentamente monitorato. Fortemente critici verso Berezovskij anche gli esponenti del movimento democratico russo
L’abbraccio di Berezovskij è politicamente fatale per chiunque in Russia, visti i trascorsi del personaggio. Boris ha fatto i primi soldi trafficando in automobili, assieme a gruppi ceceni in odore di mafia. Poi si è legato alla Famiglia, diventando la longa manus dei personaggi che operavano dietro le quinte del Cremlino all’epoca di Eltsin. Un suo avversario, poi diventato suo alleato e ora esule in Spagna, Vladimir Gusinskij, lo accusò di aver tentato di farlo assassinare. Accusa confermata dal capo delle guardie del corpo di Eltsin, Aleksandr Korzhakov (che dice di aver rifiutato l’incarico proposto da Berezovskij).
Con l’arrivo di Putin che lui stesso aveva aiutato, l’oligarca ha perso potere ed è passato tra le file degli oppositori. A Londra era legato anche ad Aleksandr Litvinenko, l’ex agente assassinato col polonio. E Berezovskij è stato tra i più accesi sostenitori delle accuse contro il Cremlino per questo omicidio.

Fonte: Corriere della Sera

La procura generale di Mosca ha ufficialmente inviato a Londra una richiesta di estradizione per Boris Berezovsky, il magnate russo rifugiatosi in Gran Bretagna e noto come fermo oppositore del presidente Vladimir Putin.

Mosca chiede dunque a Londra di revocare lo status di asilo politico accordato a Berezovsky. Quest'ultimo venerdì in un'intervista al quotidiano britannico Guardian aveva detto che "non ci può essere un cambiamento in Russia senza pressione o ricorso alla forza", ma ieri ha precisato che non alludeva ad un'insurrezione armata o a metodi 'sanguinari': "Non appoggio nessun ricorso alla violenza", ha detto Berezhovsky.
Scotland Yard sta esaminando le dichiarazioni di Berezovsky per verificare se sussistono gli estremi di 'offese' al governo di Mosca.

Fonte: Rainews24