Background
Boris Berezovsky was born on January 23, 1946 in Moscow. His parents both belonged to so-called ‘intelligentsia’. In general it was an ordinary family. He started school when he was six. In 1962, after graduating from a secondary school, he entered the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute. He entered a new Faculty of Electronics and Computing Technologies. In 1973 Mr. Berezovsky entered the Faculty of Mechanics at the prestigious Moscow State University. He obtained the Doctor of Science degree when he was 37.
According to the Jerusalem Post, in November 1993 Boris Berezovsky, his spouse Galina, their son Artem and daughter Anastasia were admitted to citizenship of Israel.
Boris Berezovsky is the author of more than 100 scientific monographs. Some of his works have been published in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and France. In 1991 he became a member of the Russian Academy of Science. He is the founder of the International Scientific Foundation which awards scientists on yearly basis.
Berezovsky has been married 4 times. He has 6 children — four daughters and two sons. He met his first wife, Nina Berezovskaya, in the University. There is almost no information about her in the press. It is reported that they have two daughters — Elizaveta and Ekaterina (Elizaveta already had a son called Savva).
At the end of 1980s Berezovsky married for the second time. His second wife Galina was born in 1958. She was in her 30 when she married Berezovsky. In 1989 their son Artem was born and in 1992 — daughter Anastasia. In 1993 Galina, Artem and Anastasia were admitted to Israeli citizenship. According to the press reports, they presently live in Israel.
In 1995, at one of the premieres in the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow Berezovsky met Elena Gorbunova who became his third wife. They married officially in 1996, after their daughter Arina was born. Their son Gleb was born a year later.
Work Experience
Having graduated from the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute in 1968 Boris Berezovsky worked as an engineer in one of the scientific and research institutes. From 1969 till 1987 he filled the positions of an assistant research officer, research officer and finally the head of a department in the Institute of Management Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
His academic career was rather good, but he was looking for full self-actualization. “I knew there were people more professional than me in the field of science. Perhaps it was one of the reasons for the change in my life. When I entered business, I felt that a few people could do the things I did”, he told in one of the interviews. For some time, he was alone in his unique business. A little bit later Mr. Khodorkovsky, Mr. Potanin and others now called oligarchs entered the business.
In 1989 Boris Berezovsky and Samat Zhaboev organized “Logovaz” joint-stock company. In 4 years it became one of the biggest private enterprises in Russia. It was the major dealer of the Autovaz car producer. In 1993 the turnover of a company exceeded USD 250 million. That was a time of the transition from planned to a market economy in Russia, and there was almost no private sector. On May 31, 1994 Logovaz became a holding company and Mr. Berezovsky was appointed the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Some time later Boris Berezovsky headed the Russian Automobile Alliance. Then he launched a project widely advertised as “popular car” project. The aim was to create a small and fuel-efficient Russian car very popular with motorists. He collected about USD 50 million for this purpose, but the project has never been implemented.
At the end of 1996 he quit the position of a General Director of the Russian Automobile Alliance and tried to gain control over the Aeroflot Airlines — biggest airlines in USSR. At that time, about 51% of the shares of the company belonged to the state and it was impossible to gain full control over the company. However it could be done by giving positions to the managers that could be controlled. This is exactly what was done.
In July 1994 there was a murderous assault in the result of which the driver of Mr. Berezovsky was killed, but Berezovsky was not hurt.
In January 1995 he took part in the creation of ORT - the biggest national channel - and became a member of the Board of Directors. The same year he became acquainted with Roman Abramovich. They created an organization which later was used to privatize the Sibneft — a big Siberian oil company.
Political Career
Apart from his business career, Berezovsky took part in the cultural and political life of the country. In September 1996 he became a member of the Committee and helped to prepare Saint-Petersburg to compete for a city to hold the Olympic Games in 2004.
In October 1996 he was appointed the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russian Federation. In the Security Council, he dealt with economic issues, organized negotiations of Russian and Chechnya leaders and made decisions to resolve out the Georgian conflict.
In January 1997 the Council of Federation advised Russian President Boris Yeltsin to dismiss Boris Berezovsky from the position. The upper chamber of the Russian parliament said that the Council of Federation ‘absolutely condemns’ the political actions of Boris Berezovsky. The fact that Berezovsky appeared to have two citizenships contributed to the dismissal. On November 5, 1997 Boris Yeltsin dismissed Mr. Berezovsky from the position. The official ground was ‘change of the job’.
In November 1997 Berezovsky was appointed the Advisor to the Head of the Administration for the President of Russia and in May 1998 he was fired.
During this stage of his political career, Berezovsky gained control over many political processes and could influence President Yeltsin. He was a member of the so-called ‘family’ which was a group of people who made the major decisions and were close to Yeltsin.
The split between Berezovsky and politicians, who came to power after Yeltsin, is dated February 2, 1999 when a search was conducted in the office of Sibneft. A little time later, on February 4, 1999, a new search was conducted in the Aeroflot. Logovaz also started experiencing some problems. Among the reasons there was a breach of financial regulations and tax legislation. On April 6, 1999 in the framework of Aeroflot case the Office of Public Prosecutor brought a charge against Berezovsky and sanctioned his arrest. The reasons were ‘illegal business undertakings’ and ‘legalization of illegally received funds’. The next day, Berezovsky announced he wanted to get back to Russia from Paris to show that ‘law still rules’ in Russia. Later the charge had been exculpated.
In 1999 he was elected as a Karachaevo-Cherkessia constituency MP, but in July 2000 quit the position because of the disagreement with general Duma politics.
In October 2000 Berezovsky claimed he would like to continue his career in the media business. He stressed he would do ‘every thing possible to protect independent mass media’ and ‘improve the quality of work’ of the media he controlled.
In May 2001 he announced he would support Sergei Yushenkov, the Duma Deputy, and create the democratic opposition in Russia.
On December 14, 2001 Berezovsky made the first sensational announcements concerning the activities of the Russian ‘special services’, including the Federal Security Service (former KGB). On one of the TV programs showed on NTV channel he said they are privy to the explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk cities in 1999. The announcement has become a real sticking point for the Office of the General Prosecutor, Federal Security Service and Boris Berezovsky. New charges have been presented to Berezovsky and an international search for him started. The reasons cited included multiple violations of economic legislation and support of Chechen terrorists etc. The authorities said they had evidence of financial manipulations of Boris Berezovsky in the course of his work in Chechnya. They also said his announcement about the illegal activities of the Federal Security Service was just an attempt to distract attention and dismiss charges.
In December 2001 Berezovsky, who still did not return to Russia, created and headed the Liberal Russia political movement. The others involved were Duma Deputies Victor Pokhmelkin and Sergei Yushenkov. In autumn 2002 there was a new charge of a huge theft of Logovaz cars, and Berezovsky was expelled from the party.
In September 2003 the media said there was an attempt to poison a well-known Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in Great Britain. On September 11, the next day he was granted political asylum in United Kingdom, Mr. Berezovsky confirmed that there was a murderous assault by the Russian Special Forces. According to The Sunday Times, it was a Russian Intelligence Service agent who attempted Berezovsky’s life. He entered Britain illegally and brought a pen with a strong poison. However his attempt was not successful. According to Interfax, the spokesman for the Intelligence Service of Russian Federation called this publications nonsense and made no comments on this.
Property
In his interview to the Vedomosty newspaper in 2002 Berezovsky said his assets in Russia cost about USD 1.5 billion. However he refused to tell what property, businesses and shares he owns. In February he told New York Times his investment both in Russia and abroad equals USD 3 billion.
Boris Berezovsky has been a very odious figure in Russian politics. General public in Russia never liked Berezovsky. When he was a member of the President Yeltsin’s ‘family’, his huge influence on Russian politics was obvious. The public attitude towards him was absolutely negative.
Relative links:
http://www.borisberezovsky.com/
http://www.dosye.ru/dosye/ru_bio249.htm
http://www.compromat.ru/main/berezovskiy/a.htm
http://www.persons.ru/cgi/show.exe?Num=239&Item=53&Get=All
http://kompromat.flb.ru/name.phtml?fam=9
http://www.temadnya.ru/spravka/19oct2003/3261.html
Evgeniya Stroganova
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