The rise and fall of an oligarch
Boris Berezovsky made billions following the collapse of the Soviet Union, only to be exiled and see his fortune slowly slip away, writes COLE MORETON.
Boris Berezovsky made billions before exile led to fading fortunes,
The rise and fall and exile of Boris Berezovsky is like a great tale from Russian literature, full of both charm and treachery.
Once a mathematics professor in the Soviet era, earning a pittance, he became one of the richest men in the world, a flamboyant billionaire who helped put two presidents in the Kremlin. He became the enemy of one of them and was forced into exile. British police said Sunday that experts in hazardous materials were searching a property in Ascot, 40 kilometres west of London, after the “unexplained” death on Saturday of the Russian tycoon.
Police said a 67-year-old “believed to be” Berezovsky was found dead at the Ascot property. They said Sunday it would be wrong to speculate on how Berezovsky died pending the results of an autopsy but that they had no reason to suspect thirdparty involvement.
“We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress,” Insp. Kevin Brown said.
Berezovsky, who had survived a number of assassination attempts, amassed a fortune through oil and automobiles during Russia’s chaotic privatization of state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
He lived in France and Britain in a world of limousines and private jets, penthouses and country estates, bodyguards and lawyers — but the details of his life were laid bare in a courtroom in London two years ago, when Berezovsky sued his former friend, Roman Abramovich, for breach of trust and breach of contract. Berezovsky claimed that Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, had failed to pay him what he was owed for a deal they allegedly made together in the ruins of the Soviet empire.
“I trusted him. I believed he was like my son,” said Berezovsky, a short, combative man looking like a dapper Danny DeVito in a blue suit and open-necked white shirt. “He betrayed me,” he told the court.
As he spoke, his girlfriend, Yelena Gorbunova, looked on. She was 20 years younger, at 42, but was his long-term partner and had given him two children.
Only earlier, Berezovsky had agreed to the most expensive divorce settlement in British history, paying $342 million to his former wife, Galina Besharova, mother of another two children. The couple had been legally married for 18 years, but only together for two of them.
Abramovich denied there had ever been a deal over shares, and that he owed any money to Berezovsky. He admitted once paying him $800 million but said that was in return for the older man acting as a political godfather. The Russian term for it — krysha — translates as “roof.”
The two were among the handful of men who made vast fortunes by acquiring the formerly nationalized oil companies and other industries as the Soviet Union broke up.
Berezovsky, born in Moscow in 1946 and the son of a Jewish engineer and a nurse, first became a mathematics professor at Moscow University, then embraced capitalism.
A car dealer first, he became a multimillionaire through finance. With money, charm and contacts, he became useful to Russian president Boris Yeltsin after they met in 1993, and benefited just as much at a time when the economy was in chaos.
He took control of the oil company Sibneft and 49 per cent of the state television station ORT and, with his fellow oligarchs, funded a slick campaign to re-elect Yeltsin.
They also made loans to the state and, in return, were given shares in formerly nationalized companies, which earned them untold wealth. In 1997, having taken over the airline Aeroflot, he was named by Forbes magazine as the ninth most powerful entrepreneur in the world, worth $3 billion.
Ordinary Russians did not appreciate Berezovsky as much as those in power, seeing him as one of those to blame for the state of their country.
A bomb was planted, but his chauffeur died instead.
Berezovsky put his money behind Vladimir Putin’s successful bid for the presidency in 2000, and his television station carried out a highly effective smear campaign on the main rivals.
However, aware of the public’s distaste for the oligarchs, Putin positioned himself against them.
Under pressure, Berezovsky resigned from the seat in parliament that had guaranteed him immunity and fled to France, then London.
When the Russian authorities tried to extradite him on charges of money-laundering and illegal business activity in 2002, Berezovsky said that his life would be in danger if he went back. The next year, he was granted asylum.
In recent times, his wealth was said to have been considerably reduced, not least by multiple legal battles.