Media serfdom in Ukraine

Maidan was meant to set Ukrainian media free, but the press remains dependent on the oligarchs. (opendemocracy.net – Otar Dovzhenko – May 6, 2015) Otar Dovzhenko lectures at the School of Journalism at Ukrainian Catholic University, L’viv and is the former editor of Telekritika, Ukraine’s leading platform for media commentary. He has been involved in monitoring Ukrainian media since 2005. On 25 […]

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NEWSLINK New York Times: Judge Rebuffs U.S. in Rejecting Extradition of Ukraine Billionaire

Hand Pulling Cash from Envelope

In a defeat for the United States, an Austrian judge refused Thursday to order the extradition of Dmitri V. Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire and onetime patron of the country’s ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, siding with defense lawyers who said the American request was politically motivated.

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The rise and fall of the Russian oligarchy; Newly declassified U.S. documents, released to bne IntelliNews, show how Vladimir Putin’s candidacy was a compromise after a fierce battle between pro-US oligarchs and pro-state conservatives

Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack – April 14, 2015) Fifteen years after the then unknown Vladimir Putin took over the Russian presidency, analysts still puzzle over how he arrived in the position. Newly declassified documents from President Bill Clinton’s administration, released to bne IntelliNews, show how Putin’s candidacy was a compromise after a fierce battle for power […]

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NEWSWATCH Chatham House: Ukraine’s Oligarch Gambit

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

Writing for Chatham House in the aftermath of Igor Kolomoisky’s dismissal as regional governor, Orysia Lutsevych considers the impact of Ukrainian oligarchs and efforts to address their role. The grip the oligarchs have on Ukraine’s economy could further undermine the country’s integrity. Attacking their vested interests is dangerous but preserving the current state of affairs is even riskier.   According to […]

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Team Kolomoisky; It’s easy to make misleading conclusions when it comes to Team Kolomoisky – if you don’t know Dnipropetrovsk from the inside

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(opendemocracy.net – Victoria Narizhna – April 9, 2015) Victoria Narizhna is a Ukrainian columnist, essayist, translator, cultural manager, and civil activist from Dnipropetrovsk. After Ihor Kolomoisky, a pro-Maidan oligarch and governor of Dnipropetrovsk, allegedly used volunteer fighters to seize control of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, he resigned his governorship live on television, causing a rift in Ukraine’s power elites. The ensuing scandal […]

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NEWSLINK Newsweek: Mystery of Ukraine’s Richest Man and a Series of Unlikely Suicides

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

Feuding oligarchs are battling to retain or increase their influence in the new order, and their lieutenants are turning up dead. Melnychuk was a prosecutor in the southern port town of Odessa, governed by Kolomoisky ally Ihor Palytsia. He is just one of at least eight officials appointed by the Yanukovych regime, ousted by pro-democracy protesters in February last year, […]

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Fight between Ukraine’s government and oligarchs embroils largest lender Privatbank

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – April 1, 2015) The war between Ukraine’s government and the oligarchs has reached into the fragile banking system, as the central bank felt moved to reassure depositors in Privatbank, the country’s largest, after allies of President Petro Poroshenko made murder allegations regarding its owner, Ihor Kolomoisky. The National Bank […]

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NEWSWATCH Reuters: Russia’s rich forego some luxuries but still back Putin

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

[“Russia’s rich forego some luxuries but still back Putin” – Reuters – Elizabeth Piper –  March 29, 2015] Reuters covers the reactions among Russia’s elite to economic changes such as Western sanctions, a falling ruble, oil price losses and other disruptions. … the enforced modesty has not yet driven the super wealthy out of Russia or against President Vladimir Putin, who […]

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Pressure on Kolomoyskyi is U.S. attempt to create centralized Ukraine with strong anti-Russian govt – Duma deputy

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) – The events around Ukrainian governor Ihor Kolomoyskyi attest that he is not among the people the West is planning to build relations with, says Mikhail Yemelyanov, first deputy leader of A Just Russia Party faction. “It is clear that Kolomoyskyi is not the politician with whom the U.S. and Europeans would like to deal, hence […]

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NEWSWATCH Christian Science Monitor: Ukraine’s latest challenge: oligarchs with private armies

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

[“Ukraine’s latest challenge: oligarchs with private armies; Gov. Igor Kolomoisky, who was given political power and the right to create a private army last year, last week used that power to seize the state oil company’s headquarters in Kiev” – Christian Science Monitor –  Fred Weir – March 25, 2015] The Christian Science Monitor reports on developments in Ukraine surrounding billionaire […]

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Moscow Times: Internal Rifts in Ukraine Play in Russia’s Favor – Analysts

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – March 25, 2015) When the incoming Ukrainian government faced the threat of sweeping separatism in the country’s eastern regions one year ago, pugnacious billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky was the only oligarch to help. As other tycoons hovered on the fence, unsure of how the ongoing fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in the country’s […]

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Ukraine’s Catch 22 over its oligarch class

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Mark Adomanis in Philadelphia – March 25, 2015) As the Soviet Union collapsed in both Russia and Ukraine, small groups of extremely clever and even more ruthless men “privatized” (or if you prefer less exalted language “stole”) all of the prize industrial assets. Virtually overnight, these formerly mid-ranking bureaucrats and functionaries became billionaires, some […]

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NEWSWATCH: ‘Putin’s brain’ says he doesn’t have Putin’s ear. Do we know who does?

File Photo of Vladimir Putin at Valdai Club 2013 Meeting, Adapted from Screenshot of Valdai Club Video at youtube.com

[“‘Putin’s brain’ says he doesn’t have Putin’s ear. Do we know who does? As fighting in Ukraine flares up again, one influential voice says that Putin has sidelined him. And Putin’s oligarch allies, smarting from Western sanctions, have reportedly lost influence as well.” – Fred Weir – Christian Science Monitor – January 27, 2015] The Christian Science Monitor considers the question […]

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Putin Said to Shrink Inner Circle as Hawks Beat Billionaires

Kremlin and Environs Aerial View

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik – January 23, 2015) Vladimir Putin isn’t just angering leaders from Berlin to Washington. He’s irking some of his richest friends, too, by snubbing their pleas to end the conflict in Ukraine and ostracizing all but a handful of hardliners. The ruble’s plunge has heightened opposition to Putin’s backing of the rebellion […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Russia’s Mobutu?

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Derek Brower in London – January 13, 2015) Corruption in Vladimir Putin’s Russia has sprouted its own sub-genre for Western publishers. Few of the many books, though, have the laser-like focus or amass the same devastating detail as Karen Dawisha’s “Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?” (Simon & Schuster, New York: 2014). Thanks to Britain’s […]

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How to Become a Russian Billionaire With No Help from the Kremlin

Krasnodar and Road

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Khrennikov – November 20, 2014) It’s a hot day in Krasnodar, deep in southern Russia. The action is hot on the soccer field, too. Ari, the local club’s Brazilian striker, takes a pass from the left flank and scores a beautiful goal. Ari (full name Ariclenes da Silva Ferreira) then wheels away in celebration to […]

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Russian Elites Still View Putin as Their Defense Against Russian People, Skobov Says

Vladimir Putin file photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 30, 2014) Members of Russian elites see Vladimir Putin as the only person who can maintain the existing system in which they are beneficiaries and protect them from having to go head to head with the Russian people as a whole, Aleksandr Skobov says. Consequently, they will stick with him even […]

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For the Russian elite, loyalty is all: Life has changed for Russia’s elite – and not just their holiday destinations…

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(opendemocracy.net – Yelizaveta Surnacheva – October 16, 2014) Yelizaveta Surnacheva is a journalist at Kommersant. In the last six months, Russian officials, oligarchs, CEOs of state-owned businesses, parliamentary deputies, and regional governors have found themselves in a new world, with new missions, new economic circumstances, and new mechanisms for decision-making. Not many are comfortable with it, but enough of them […]

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Russian Billionaires in ‘Horror’ as Putin Risks Isolation

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik, Ilya Arkhipov – July 21, 2014) Russia’s richest businessmen are increasingly frantic that President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine will lead to crippling sanctions and are too scared of reprisal to say so publicly, billionaires and analysts said. If Putin doesn’t move to end the war in Ukraine in the wake of […]

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Oligarchic Capitalism Blamed for Loss of Russia’s Position in Former Soviet Republics

Map of Former Soviet Union

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 12, 2014) The Russian Federation, by focusing on the construction of “oligarchic capitalism,” essentially “threw all the union republics” to their own fates, and as a result, the governments and peoples have turned away from Moscow and ethnic Russians are fleeing back to Russia, thus further undermining Russian influence. That harsh […]

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Navalny Proposes Sanctions List to the West

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – March 20, 2014) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently under house arrest in connection with a criminal case against him, has written an op-ed for the New York Times in which he calls for sanctions on officials and businessmen connected to President Vladimir Putin. Saying that previous U.S. and EU sanctions in response […]

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U.S. Threatens Sanctions Against Politically Connected Tycoons

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – March 20, 2014) The White House has thrown some light on who may be next in line to feel U.S. wrath over Crimea’s breakaway from Ukraine: businesspeople close to the Russian government. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. will add bite to its current sanctions against Russian government officials by […]

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Billionaire Quits Business to Better Fight Kremlin

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – January 29, 2014) The only billionaire in the country at the head of a political party, Gleb Fetisov, has sold out of all his assets, showing his resolve to jostle for a greater role in current affairs. Worth an estimated $1.9 billion, Fetisov let the word out about the move at a […]

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Russian Democrats Must Be Suspicious of Oligarch ‘Opposition,’ Melnikov Says

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 8, 2014) Two groups in the Russian opposition which are often lumped together ­ the committed democrats and oligarchs who use democratic phraseology and even tactics to pursue wealth and the division of power — in fact are distinct, have very different goals, and often find themselves in conflict, according to […]

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Billionaire Usmanov Still Russia’s Richest Man

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 6, 2014) Alisher Usmanov retained his title as Russia’s richest businessman in 2013 with a net worth of $20.2 billion, according to a Bloomberg ranking of the world’s 200 wealthiest persons. Usmanov, whose fortune grew by $1.3 billion last year, qualified as the world’s 36th richest person in the ranking, which also saw 10 […]

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Caught in the Bear Trap: why Russia never grows

Empty Boardroom

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – December 17, 2013) Below find the link to a new paper from academics Clifford G Gaddy and Barry W Ickes, the men that brought us the term “virtual economy” in the 1990s the defining idea of the Yeltsin-era. In this new paper the thesis is that Russia suffers from the oil curse, but the […]

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Russia’s Wealthiest Selling Apartments in Moscow and Fleeing Country, Realtors Say

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 14, 2013) Many in the Russian Federation and the West were shocked when European countries recently published figures showing that thousands of Russians are now seeking asylum or at least permanent residence abroad, but Russian realtors say that behind these numbers is an even more disturbing one. Ever more wealthy Russians […]

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RIA Novosti: Russian Railways CEO Denies Navalny’s Allegations of Corruption

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 19, 2013) The head of one of the world’s largest transport companies, state-owned Russian Railways, this week dismissed as unfounded corruption allegations made against him by opposition protest leader Alexei Navalny, Prime news agency reported. In a blog post earlier in the week, Navalny published details of property and offshore companies that he claims are […]

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Chubais sees income drop 42.5 mln rubles in 2012

Anatoly Chubais file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) The income of the CEO of state company Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais fell by 42.5 million rubles to 217.7 million rubles in 2012 from 260.2 million rubles a year earlier. Chubais’ income from his main place of work dropped to 20.55 million rubles from 22.4 million rubles, materials from the state company show. As of […]

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Rotenberg denies his friend Putin helps him run his business

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 10, 2013) Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg has denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he has known for a long time, helps him solve his business problems. “Vladimir Vladimirovich and I started training in sambo wrestling when I was a little over 13 and he a little over 12. Our acquaintance goes back to that time, […]

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The End of the Consensual Hallucination

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Sitting at Desk

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – June 24, 2013) A lot of things that people say never happened before suddenly seem to be happening. When news agencies incorrectly reported — based on a forged government press release — that President Vladimir Putin had sacked his longtime ally, Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin last week, some analysts called the incident […]

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Khodorkovsky’s son says has no official info on ‘third Yukos case’

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 17, 2013) The family of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has no information on the possible third criminal case against the former Yukos CEO. “No charges have been filed, and the Investigations Committee and the prosecutors have not sent anything yet. However, I know what they say about the questioning of experts who stated their opinion on the second […]

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Bloggers Claim Photos Show Yakunin Mansion

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – June 4, 2013 – photo here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/bloggers-claim-photos-show-yakunin-mansion/480966.html) Bloggers have published pictures of a luxury mansion, believed to be owned by Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways and powerful member of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The three-story marble-clad mansion, occupying 70 hectares of land near the Moscow suburb of Domodedovo, was […]

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Suspicions Grow of 3rd Case Against Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 31, 2013) The abrupt flight from Russia of liberal economist Sergei Guriev after he was interrogated in connection with the case against tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has rekindled suspicions that a new criminal case could be opened against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who are set to be freed next year. Lawyers for […]

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Khodorkovsky, Lebedev unlikely to be released under amnesty for economic crimes – source

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 15, 2013) Former YUKOS Head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Menatep Board Chairman Platon Lebedev are unlikely to be released under amnesty for economic crimes initiated by business ombudsman Boris Titov because the two were sentenced under articles, which are included in the draft being prepared to be submitted to the Russian State Duma. “There will be […]

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Berezovsky buried in England

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(Interfax – LONDON/MOSCOW, May 8, 2013) Russian business tycoon Boris Berezovsky was buried Brookwood cemetery, Surrey, in Great Britain, a source close to the businessman told Interfax on Wednesday. “The burial service was conducted in the family circle, while the burial ceremony itself was attended by 50 to 70 people – the family and friends of the late oligarch,” the […]

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Russia’s 20 Biggest Billionaires Keep Riches From Putin

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Robert LaFranco & Alex Sazonov – May 1, 2013) Alisher Usmanov, Russia’s richest person, moved control of most of his $20 billion fortune last year to a holding company based in the British Virgin Islands, a collection of more than 60 isles 5,600 miles away from Moscow. The company, USM Holdings, controls the billionaire’s most valuable […]

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Ex-Privatization Supremo Evasive on Putin CIA Claim

Anatoly Chubais file photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 26, 2013) Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw Russia’s mass privatization drive in the 1990s, said on Friday he had always treated allegations that his US advisers at the time were operatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as rumors – until President Vladimir Putin said so out loud yesterday. “I often heard those claims and […]

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New Wealthy Russians Join Forbes Rich List

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 18, 2013) ­ Moscow’s chief obstetrician, a deputy to Russia’s voucher privatization architect Anatoly Chubais and the rector of a university where President Vladimir Putin defended his thesis are among the lucky ones who have joined Forbes’ 2013 Wealthiest Russian Businessmen List published on Thursday. Alisher Usmanov, the owner of Metalloinvest metals giant and a […]

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Oligarchs’ offspring: Going solo

Empty Boardroom

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Maximova, special to RBTH – April 8, 2013) Many do not follow in their parents’ footsteps, setting up their own businesses instead. The children of Russia’s billionaires do not all choose to take up their parents’ wealth and business empires. In fact, many have started to make names for themselves with separate […]

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Berezovsky funeral to take place in London by decision of his children – source

Boris Berezovsky file photo

MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) – The funeral of businessman Boris Berezovsky, who died in London recently, will take place in the British capital, TV Rain (Dozhd) reported citing a source close to Berezovsky’s family. “The decision to hold the funeral of the embattled oligarch in the UK has already been made by his children, firstly his older daughters – Yelizaveta […]

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Berezovsky: The faded face of a bygone era

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – April 2, 2013 -Yevgeny Gontmakher, special to RBTH) Analyst Yevgeny Gontmakher commemorates Berezovsky, who was not a hero but a face and a symbol of 90s. Yevgeny Gontmakher is deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. Boris Berezovsky, who died last month, was a shrewd self-promoter, but he was […]

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Berezovsky Lives!

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – March 29, 2013) The oligarch is dead. Long live the oligarchy. Boris Berezovsky’s death in London last week has been called the end of an era, and in some ways it sort of was. The man who once controlled swaths of the Russian economy and was called everything from the Godfather of the […]

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Khodorkovsky mourns passing of Berezovsky

Boris Berezovsky file photo

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) – Former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that he was “very bitter” amid the death of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky in London. “I was told that Berezovsky had died. We were never friends but have known each other for over 20 years. It is a long time. It is hard to hear that Borya is gone […]

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‘Berezovsky Was a Scapegoat and a Criminal’

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – March 26, 2013) “Is Boris Berezovsky the godfather of Russia’s godfathers? It sure looks that way,” Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov wrote in an article published in late 1996, the year a small group of Russian oligarchs, including Berezovsky, engineered President Boris Yeltsin’s re-election. Berezovsky, then a billionaire businessman, objected to the portrayal, […]

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Residence Issue Crucial to Berezovsky Estate Decision – Expert

Boris Berezovsky file photo

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Resolving the fate of the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky’s estate will depend on whether the United Kingdom or Russia is ruled to have been his official place of residence, an expert told the Rapsi news agency on Monday. Since 2000, the Russian businessman had resided in the United Kingdom, where he died on Saturday […]

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Berezovsky And Putin — The Real Tandem Of Putinism?

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(RFE/RL – www.rferl.org – Robert Coalson – March 24, 2013) Boris Berezovsky ­ who was found dead of as yet undetermined causes in his London home on March 23 ­ was a key figure among those who brought Vladimir Putin to power in 1999. And although Berezovsky was driven into exile by the end of 2000, over the years he […]

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NEWSLINK: Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to continue its legal actions to bring Berezovsky’s criminally acquired assets back to Russia

Boris Berezovsky file photo

[Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to continue its legal actions to bring Berezovsky’s criminally acquired assets back to Russia – ITAR-TASS – March 25, 2013 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/686220.html] ITAR-TASS reports on Russian efforts to seize assets of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, recently found dead under undetermined circumstances in Britain, where he had been granted political asylum. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office […]

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NEWSLINK: Exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky died in Britain

Boris Berezovsky file photo

[Exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky died in Britain – ITAR-TASS – March 25, 2013 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/686021.html] ITAR-TASS covers the death of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in Britain: Boris Berezovsky, an exiled oligarch and one of the main figures on the Russian political scene of Boris Yeltsin’s epoch, was found dead at his mansion in the town Ascot in the English […]

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