The exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has been found dead in a bath at his home in Surrey on Saturday, the BBC News reported, and his family confirmed. Suicide is suspected. In the past years, he survived numerous assassination attempts, including a bomb that decapitated his chauffeur.
Berezovsky, a former Kremlin power broker, saw his fortunes decline once Vladimir Putin came to power, even though he had helped the former KGB officer ascend to the presidency in 2000. Berezovsky had lived in the UK -in exile- since that year.
Berezovsky was one of the most notorious of 'oligarchs' who got rich in the '90s Russia. Washington Post Editor David Hoffman wrote The Oligarchs: Wealth And Power In The New Russia depicting dangerous power brokers within their nascent capitalistic structure. These men included Berezovsky, Alexander Smolensky, Yuri Luzhkov, Anatoly Chubais, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovsky, and Vladimir Gusinsky. The book chronicles how they got rich fast, their rivalries intensified, and how they used every means possible to increase their personal wealth and political clout.
In the 1990s, Berezovsky was seen as the richest, most wealthy and politically connected of the oligarchs. He banked oh his friendship with Tatiana Dyachenko, the daughter of then-president Boris Yeltsin. This enabled him to become a potent political power broker of the Kremlin.
In the 1996 Russian presidential elections, Berezovsky helped Yeltsin's bid for re-election. Berezovsky spearheaded with other oligarchs to "exchange hundreds of millions of dollars in cash for Yeltsin's re-election in exchange for shares in some of Russia's most valuable industrial enterprises," Yahoo News reported. By using the media to help his candidate and friend, Yeltsin garnered enough support to win re-election. In return, Berezovksly got even wealthier and his standing as a political force grew strong.
As Yeltsin got increasingly sick in the years that followed, it was Berezovsky who recommended the KGB officer Vladimir Putin to be the successor. Once Putin took power, Berezovksys fortunes changed. Putin implored that the oligarchs stay out of politics. When he and Putin clashed, he led a self-imposed exile. In 2004, his involvement in the Ukranian elections caused greater enmity between himself and Putin.
A documentary about Berezovsky's efforts to undermine Putin from his exile in UK was shown on the BBC in December 2005. Berezovsky fled to the UK after being accused of tax evasion and fraud.
Last year, Berezovsky lost a case against fellow Russian businessman and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in which he claimed he was intimidated into selling shares in Russian oil giant Sibneft. Mr Berezovsky had been claiming $4.7 billion in damages, according to reports.
In 1996 the Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov wrote a highly critical article on Berezovsky and the state of Russia. In response to which Berezovsky sued Forbes Magazine. In 2001, Klebnikov expanded his article into a book entitled Godfather of the Kremlin, depicting Berezovsky a a cutthroat, mafia-style "businessman" who manipulated, cajoled and threatened his enemies. Some murders in Russia oft-times were linked to Berezovsky. Klebnikov, himself, was mysteriously murdered in 2004.
Berezvovsky went from being a mathematics wiz-kid to Russia's largest Lada car salesman, media mogul, and "acquiring" Sibneft in rigged privatization auctions, reports said.
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