BAB has been saying this stuff for years.
I love the stuff about how the regime can't be taken down by democratic means. Because, like, it has an 80% approval rating. And BAB is a ruthless gangster universally despised.
--- Ira Glazer <ira at yanua.com> wrote:
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329776948-103610,00.html
>
> London exile Berezovsky says force necessary to
> bring down President Putin
>
> Ian Cobain and Matthew Taylor and Luke Harding in
> Moscow
> Friday April 13, 2007
>
> The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the
> Guardian he is plotting
> the violent overthrow of President Putin from his
> base in Britain after
> forging close contacts with members of Russia's
> ruling elite.
>
> In comments which appear calculated to enrage the
> Kremlin, and which
> will further inflame relations between London and
> Moscow, the
> multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling
> people close to the
> president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup.
>
> "We need to use force to change this regime," he
> said. "It isn't
> possible to change this regime through democratic
> means. There can be no
> change without force, pressure." Asked if he was
> effectively fomenting a
> revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."
>
> Although Mr Berezovsky, with an estimated fortune of
> £850m, may have the
> means to finance such a plot, and although he
> enjoyed enormous political
> influence in Russia before being forced into exile,
> he said he could not
> provide details to back up his claims because the
> information was too
> sensitive.
>
> Last night the Kremlin denounced Mr Berezovsky's
> comments as a criminal
> offence which it believed should undermine his
> refugee status in the UK.
>
> Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's chief spokesman, said:
> "In accordance with
> our legislation [his remarks are] being treated as a
> crime. It will
> cause some questions from the British authorities to
> Mr Berezovsky. We
> want to believe that official London will never
> grant asylum to someone
> who wants to use force to change the regime in
> Russia."
>
> It will not be the first time the British government
> has faced
> accusations from the Kremlin that it is providing a
> safe haven for Mr
> Berezovsky. When he told a Moscow radio station last
> year that he wanted
> to see Mr Putin overthrown by force, Jack Straw,
> then foreign secretary,
> told the Commons that "advocating the violent
> overthrow of a sovereign
> state is unacceptable" and warned the tycoon he
> could be stripped of his
> refugee status.
>
> Russian authorities subsequently sent an extradition
> request to London.
> That failed, however, when a district judge ruled Mr
> Berezovsky could
> not be extradited as long as he has asylum status.
>
> In an interview with the Guardian, however, Mr
> Berezovsky goes much
> further than before, claiming to be in close contact
> with members of
> Russia's political elite who, he says, share his
> view that Mr Putin is
> damaging Russia by rolling back democratic reforms,
> smothering
> opposition, centralising power and flouting the
> country's constitution.
>
> "There is no chance of regime change through
> democratic elections," he
> says. "If one part of the political elite disagrees
> with another part of
> the political elite - that is the only way in Russia
> to change the
> regime. I try to move that."
>
> While declining to describe these contacts - and
> alleging that they
> would be murdered if they were identified - he
> maintained that he was
> offering his "experience and ideology" to members of
> the country's
> political elite, as well as "my understanding of how
> it could be done".
> He added: "There are also practical steps which I am
> doing now, and
> mostly it is financial."
>
> Mr Berezovsky said he was unconcerned by any threat
> to strip him of his
> refugee status. "Straw wasn't in a position to take
> that decision. A
> judge in court said it wasn't in the jurisdiction of
> Straw."
>
> He added that there was even less chance of such a
> decision being taken
> following the polonium-210 poisoning last November
> of his former
> employee, Alexander Litvinenko. "Today the reality
> is different because
> of the Litvinenko case."
>
> Mr Berezovsky, 61, a former mathematician, turned to
> business during the
> Yeltsin years and made his fortune by capturing
> state assets at
> knockdown prices during Russia's rush towards
> privatisation.
>
> Although he played a key role in ensuring Mr Putin's
> victory in the 2000
> presidential elections, the two men fell out as the
> newly elected leader
> successfully wrested control of Russia back from the
> so-called
> oligarchy, the small group of tycoons who had come
> to dominate the
> country's economy.
>
> A few months after the election Mr Berezovsky fled
> Russia, and applied
> successfully for asylum in the UK after Mr
> Litvinenko, an officer with
> the KGB's successor, the FSB, came forward to say he
> had been ordered to
> murder the tycoon.
>
> Mr Berezovsky changed his name to Platon Elenin,
> Platon being the name
> of a character in a Russian film based loosely upon
> his life. He was
> subsequently given a British passport in this name.
>
> As well as claiming to be financing and encouraging
> coup plotters in
> Moscow, Mr Berezovsky said he had dedicated much of
> the last six years
> to "trying to destroy the positive image of Putin"
> that many in the west
> held, portraying him whenever possible as a
> dangerously anti-democratic
> figure. He said he had also opposed the Russian
> president through
> Kommersant, the influential Russian newspaper which
> he controlled until
> last year.
>
> Last month Mr Berezovsky was questioned by two
> detectives from the
> Russian prosecutor general's office who were in
> London to investigate
> the death of Mr Litvinenko. He has denied claims
> that he refused to
> answer many of their questions.
>
> Last night the Kremlin said Russian authorities
> might want to question
> him again in the light of his interview with the
> Guardian. "I now
> believe our prosecutor general's office has got lots
> of questions for Mr
> Berezovsky," said Mr Peskov. He added: "His words
> are very interesting.
> This is a very sensitive issue."
>
> The Foreign Office said it had nothing to add to Mr
> Straw's comments of
> last year.
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