Boris Berezovsky

Boris Berezovskywas a Russian entrepreneur who was among Russia’s famed “oligarchs,” the post-Soviet group who made their fortunes in the chaotic last years of the U.S.S.R. and parlayed their wealth into political power in the new, capitalist Russia.

Berezovsky was the only son of a nurse and a builder. He studied electronics and computer science, completed his postgraduate studies in 1975, and earned his doctorate in decision-making theory in 1983. Thereafter he worked on information management at an institute of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. In 1991 he became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Berezovsky founded his business empire in the last years of the Soviet Union. The economic liberalization launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev legalized small-scale private enterprise and made it possible for Soviet businessmen to privatize the profitable parts of their state-owned businesses. They could also exploit the gap between the controlled prices set by the state and the prices Soviet-produced goods could fetch on the free market. Berezovsky typified these “new Russians.” He had worked as a consultant on information management to AvtoVaz, Inc., the largest Soviet car producer, and in 1989 he used those contacts to set up LogoVaz, the U.S.S.R.’s first capitalist car dealership. LogoVaz bought cars at the state-set price for cars intended for export and sold them at the much higher price such cars could fetch inside Russia. The profits enabled Berezovsky to expand his interests into oil and banking. His cultivation of his relationships with Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin’s bodyguard and with Yeltsin’s youngest daughter gave Berezovsky an entrée into the Kremlin. As a result, he won financial control of the former Soviet state airline, Aeroflot, and of Russian Public Television (ORT), Russia’s main television channel.

In 1996 Berezovsky helped bankroll Yeltsin’s reelection as president. He was rewarded with political appointments, first as deputy secretary of the Security Council in 1996 and then in 1998 as executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Under his management, ORT supported first Yeltsin and then Yeltsin’s designated successor, Vladimir Putin.

When Yeltsin resigned on December 31, 1999, Berezovsky lost his status as a Kremlin insider and one of Russia’s most powerful men. Putin came to power in 2000 promising to “liquidate the oligarchs as a class.” His determination to reassert state control soon brought him into conflict with Berezovsky. Accusing Putin of returning to totalitarianism, Berezovsky announced the formation of a “constructive opposition.” He complained that the Kremlin had threatened him with imprisonment unless he surrendered control of ORT. Instead, Berezovsky transferred his shares to a handpicked group of writers and journalists. In July 2000 a long-standing investigation into Berezovsky’s handling of Aeroflot’s finances was revived. By late 2000 Berezovsky had been ousted from Kremlin circles; fearing arrest, he fled to Great Britain. That December he announced that he was establishing a multimillion-dollar foundation to promote judicial reform and the development of civil society in Russia.

While in exile, Berezovsky continued his outspoken criticism of the Russian government, going so far as to finance Putin’s opposition and to call for his overthrow by force. Alleging numerous charges against him, the Russian government in 2003 requested his extradition. Berezovsky, however, was granted asylum by Britain later that year. In 2007 he was tried in absentia by a Russian court and was found guilty of embezzling from Aeroflot. The following year Berezovsky brought suit in a London court against Roman Abramovich, a former business partner and the owner of the Chelsea Football Club. Berezovsky accused Abramovich of coercing him into selling his shares in the Russian oil company Sibneft. At the time, the multibillion-dollar legal battle was the biggest private court case in British history, and it offered observers an insight into the inner workings of the oligarchs in the post-Soviet era. In August 2012 Berezovsky’s case was dismissed with a judgment that characterized him as dishonest, and he was ordered to pay Abramovich’s legal fees, which exceeded $50 million.