[Archived] Boris Berezovsky

[Sparky Marky]

I want to know who suicided him?

[thenodrog]

Could be any number of folk. Seems like he made enemies of any number of dangerous and powerful men.

[old darwen blue]

Who?

[Audax]

Who?

Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has been found dead at his home outside London.

A police investigation has been launched into the death of

the 67-year-old - a wanted man in Russia, and an opponent of President

Vladimir Putin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21913356

"Putin Enemy Found Dead in Bath" saw one place say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/world/europe/boris-a-berezovsky-a-putin-critic-dies-at-67.html?_r=0

MOSCOW — Boris A. Berezovsky,

once the richest and most powerful of the so-called oligarchs who

dominated post-Soviet Russia, and a close ally of Boris N. Yeltsin who

helped install Vladimir V. Putin as president but later exiled himself

to London after a bitter falling out with the Kremlin, died Saturday.

He was 67 and lived near London, where last year he lost one of the

largest private lawsuits in history — an epic tug-of-war over more than

$5 billion with another Russian oligarch, Roman A. Abramovich, in which

legal and other costs were estimated to be about $250 million.

The Chelsea owner mentioned? If he's mixed up in this... but if Berezovsky was so wealthy, you'd think he'd have good security. We know very little here.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I can't weigh it up, 25 years ago none of these guys had a bean. Now they're the richest guys on

the planet ! You don't do that without cutting a few corners and cutting a few throats.

[thenodrog]

Credit where credit is due Tyrone! Being in at the start must help. None of our corporate laws and none of our taxes to fund the gazillions of assorted hangers on shackling enterprise. Any scavenging Robin Hood types seeking to rob the rich and give to the poor over there wil receive short shrift. Just a few hands to cross with silver must assist entreprenurial activity tremendously. Look at our owners ffs! If a bunch as stupid and naive in them can become as rich as Croesus in India then I guess anybody can. We can only gaze enviously at the comfortable conditions those guys operate under.

[Guest Norbert]

I can't weigh it up, 25 years ago none of these guys had a bean. Now they're the richest guys on

the planet ! You don't do that without cutting a few corners and cutting a few throats.

People like Boris were in the right place at the right time, when all the nationalised resources (TV stations, mines, oil companies etc.) were sold off on the cheap by the desperate Russian state that had messed up when they suddenly decided to go for an all out, Thatcherite market economy. The transition from Soviet command economy to a Western free market was very badly handled, and allowed the likes of Berezovsky, Abramovic etc. to build up these personal fortunes in the post-Soviet chaos.

However, there is a fine line to be trodden if you are one of these oligarchs. If you openly interfere in politics against the Putin/Medvedev axis, they will use all the powers of the state to crush you. That's why Boris was in exile in London, Litvenenko was poisoned by one of Putin's friends, and Khordokovsky has lost all his wealth and the Yukos oil company, and is rotting in a Russian prison.

[jim mk2]

Like all the Russians flooding into London, Berezovsky is here for one reason only - they are using our country as an offshore tax haven. The Russians are responsible for the mad property prices in central London. If the Russians can get their money out of Cyprus we must expect more hot money in the capital, further damaging Britain's wider economy. The whole rotten pyramid is like the leaning tower of Pisa. The time has come for all the super-rich regardless of nationality to be hit with more and more taxes.

[thenodrog]

Like all the Russians flooding into London, Berezovsky is here for one reason only - they are using our country as an offshore tax haven. The Russians are responsible for the mad property prices in central London. If the Russians can get their money out of Cyprus we must expect more hot money in the capital, further damaging Britain's wider economy. The whole rotten pyramid is like the leaning tower of Pisa. The time has come for all the super-rich regardless of nationality to be hit with more and more taxes.

Hey I didn't know that! Are Russians exempt from stamp duty, capital gains and VAT in the UK Jim? How about local govt taxes?

Much as I hold a general dislike and mistrust of the Russky's a few hundred bringing serious money into the country is far preferable to the millions who are coming in from all directions with nowt but a begging bowl and looking for a meal ticket. They must surely be the first priority for your objections if only you held a less politically skewed agenda.

Just as an aside how much for example do you think Abromovich has directly or indirectly injected into the economy given that most of the playing staff at Chelsea would be paying tax at 50p in the pound?

[jim mk2]

Alf, you need to read the book Treasure Islands, about the "offshore" financial shenanigans that is the City of London and is central to the movement and "laundering" of untold sums of stolen funds from all countries around the world, but notably from Russia and from other former Soviet Republics.

The accommodation provided by City-affiliated financial entities, themselves and their employees recipients of some of the stolen funds through fees of one sort or another to warehouse and recycle the stolen money, is a scandal.

And if you think the Russians and other super-rich are paying 50p in the pound tax you must be more naive than you already appear. Or you need a new accountant.

[broadsword]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21913356

"Putin Enemy Found Dead in Bath" saw one place say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/world/europe/boris-a-berezovsky-a-putin-critic-dies-at-67.html?_r=0

The Chelsea owner mentioned? If he's mixed up in this... but if Berezovsky was so wealthy, you'd think he'd have good security. We know very little here.

Abramovich allegedly took him to the cleaners, after Berezovsky launched a £3bn law suit against him.

He was down to his last £200m apparently. According to the Daily Heil article I read, he used to get his chauffeur to drive at 140 mph down the fast lane of the motorway whilst he got down to it with a teenage girl he'd have imported from the Ukraine.

[thenodrog]

According to the Daily Heil article I read, he used to get his chauffeur to drive at 140 mph down the fast lane of the motorway whilst he got down to it with a teenage girl he'd have imported from the Ukraine.

Nowt wrong with Boris then!

[jim mk2]

Abramovich allegedly took him to the cleaners, after Berezovsky launched a £3bn law suit against him.

He was down to his last £200m apparently. According to the Daily Heil article I read, he used to get his chauffeur to drive at 140 mph down the fast lane of the motorway whilst he got down to it with a teenage girl he'd have imported from the Ukraine.

I read that too. Presumably he used to do this on a regular basis in which case his "activities" (excessive speeding) must have been known to police. Why was he never nicked ?

[Guest Norbert]

Not to mention the possible people trafficking. If true, it is obviously one rule for one......