his fortress

Boris Berezovsky received political asylum in the UK

Yesterday evening it became known that the British authorities decided to grant political asylum to Boris Berezovsky. This decision came as a surprise not only to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which at the end of last year initiated the process of extraditing the entrepreneur, but also to those around Berezovsky himself.

Mr. Berezovsky's lawyers received notification of his asylum from the Home Office (British Home Office - Ed. ) on September 9. And yesterday the disgraced oligarch himself announced this live on Echo of Moscow. Meanwhile, his office was unable to answer the question of whether receiving British asylum means the automatic termination of the case of Berezovsky's extradition to Russia: “We still need to digest the information received, but in any case, these two cases are in no way connected with each other.” However, it is becoming obvious that the extradition trial has now lost all meaning, and the chances of Russian law enforcement agencies to get Berezovsky have become almost zero.

“Berezovsky and I had the same notifications,” another Russian who received political asylum in the UK, Alexander Litvinenko, told the Vremya Novostey newspaper. - This is the so-called “blue” form of the document, which provides for lifelong provision of political asylum. In fact, it gives us all the rights of British citizens, with the exception of two points: we do not have the right to vote and when arriving in the UK from abroad we cannot use the “green corridor”. The notice states that no matter which country we are in, we will be under the protection of the UK authorities.”

The entrepreneur approached the British authorities with a request for asylum last year. In his statement, he cited a number of arguments that he was being persecuted in Russia for political reasons. In particular, he described in detail his conflict with the authorities - how ORT was taken away from him, TV-6 was closed, etc. Almost simultaneously, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent documents to the UK for the extradition of Berezovsky and his partner Yuli Dubov to Russia, where they are accused of a number of economic crimes. Local police detained the London inmates, but then released them on bail. The extradition process for Berezovsky began in April, and the next hearing was scheduled for October 6. According to experts familiar with British justice, granting political asylum does not automatically mean the end of the extradition process. However, they believe, the judge will most likely close the hearings due to their futility.

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation only learned last night about the decision of the UK Ministry of Internal Affairs and has so far refrained from commenting. Investigators from this department are investigating two criminal cases in which Boris Berezovsky is accused. The first is about the theft of 2,033 AvtoVAZ cars in 1994-95. The second is about fraud with Aeroflot funds.

It should be noted that in the West, Mr. Berezovsky enjoyed a rather dubious reputation. But it is all the more significant that, despite this controversial reputation, London still recognized his arguments about the “political nature” of the criminal prosecution. It is possible that the current decision is partly related to the UK's assessment of the current political situation in Russia. It is possible that the “process of the security forces’ offensive” against large Russian businesses, actively described by the British press, has become an argument in favor of Mr. Berezovsky.

Alexander Shvarev, Ivan Gordeev