Boris Berezovsky (businessman)

Boris Berezovsky
Historical photo of Boris Berezovsky
Born	Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (1946-01-23)23 January 1946 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	23 March 2013(2013-03-23) (aged 67) Sunninghill, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Cause of death	Open verdict
Resting place	Brookwood Cemetery, Brookwood, Surrey, United Kingdom 51°17′58″N 0°37′33″W / 51.299574°N 0.625846°W / 51.299574; -0.625846
Other names	Platon Elenin
Citizenship	Russian / British
Occupation	Businessman, engineer, mathematician, government official
Spouse(s)	Nina Korotkova (1970–1991; divorced) Galina Besharova (1991–2010; divorced)
Partner(s)	Yelena Gorbunova (1996–2012; separated)

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (Russian: Бори́с Абра́мович Березо́вский, 23 January 1946 – 23 March 2013) was a Russian business oligarch, government official, engineer and mathematician. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Berezovsky was politically opposed to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, since Putin's election in 2000 and remained a vocal critic of Putin for the rest of his life. In late 2000, after the Russian Deputy Prosecutor General demanded that Berezovsky appear for questioning, he did not return from abroad and moved to the UK, which granted him political asylum in 2003. In Russia he was later convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement. The first charges were brought during Primakov's government in 1999. Despite an Interpol Red Notice for Berezovsky's arrest, Russia repeatedly failed to obtain the extradition of Berezovsky from Britain, which became a major point of diplomatic tension between the two countries.

Berezovsky made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s when the country went through privatization of state property. He profited from gaining control over various assets, including the country's main television channel, Channel One. In 1997 Forbes magazine estimated Berezovsky's wealth at US$3 billion. He was at the height of his power in the later Yeltsin years, when he was deputy secretary of Russia's security council, a friend of Boris Yeltsin's influential daughter Tatyana, and a member of the Yeltsin "family" (inner circle). Berezovsky helped fund Unity – the political party, which formed Vladimir Putin's parliamentary base, and was elected to the Duma on Putin's slate. However, following the Russian presidential election in March 2000, Berezovsky went into opposition and resigned from the Duma. After he moved to Britain, the government took over his television assets, and he divested from other Russian holdings.