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Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (Бори́с Абра́мович Березо́вский) (born January 23, 1946), is a Russian businessman. He was the most notorious of the 1990s Russian oligarchs and Russia's first billionaire.Berezovsky was born in Moscow. He studied forestry and then applied mathematics, receiving his doctorate in 1983 and becoming an associate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991. Berezovsky started in business in 1989 under perestroika by buying and reselling automobiles from state manufacturer AutoVAZ. During the lawlessness of the early 1990s Berezovsky, like many businessmen, was targeted by the Russian mafia for extortion. He survived several assassination attempts, including a 19941994 is a common year starting on Saturday, and was designated the International year of the Family''. Events January events January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect January 6 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an car bomb attack. During the presidency of Boris YeltsinBoris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (bah-REES YELL-tsin) (b. February 1, 1931, Sverdlovsk [now Yekaterinburg], Russia, USSR), became the first President of Russia in 1991, and the first democratically elected leader in the country's history. Early Life Boris Yelts, Berezovsky was one of the businessmen who gained access to the president. He used this access to acquire stakes in state companies including AutoVAZ itself, state airline AeroflotAeroflot — Russian Airlines ( Russian: — ), or Aeroflot , is the Russian national airline and is the biggest carrier in Russia. It was also the national airline of the Soviet Union and the largest airline in the world. It is based in the Aerostar Hotel at, and several oil properties that he organized into Sibneft. He organized a bank to finance his operations and acquired several news media holdings. These media provided essential support for Yeltsin's reelection in 19961996 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty''. Events January January 5 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone Jan.
Berezovsky is a leading proponent of political and economic liberalizationLiberalism is a political current embracing several historical and present-day ideologies that claim defense of individual liberty as the purpose of government. It typically favors the right to dissent from orthodox tenets or established authorities in po in Russia. For this reason he has frequently entered into politics by investing in liberal media, financing liberal candidates, making political statements, and even seeking office himself. He was briefly secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Independent StatesThe Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS (in Russian: Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv is a confederation or alliance consisting of 12 of the 15 states of the former Soviet Union, the exceptions being the three Baltic states. Its creation signalled and later a member of the DumaThe Duma in Russian) is the name of the lower house of the Russian parliament (the upper house being the State Council). The term comes from the Russian word dumat i. to think", in relation to Duma's advisory functions for early Russian rulers. Duma in mo. He strongly opposed the Second Chechen War but nonetheless supported Vladimir Putin's 2000 presidential campaign as an alternative to left-wing and right-wing extremism. Putin did not welcome Berezovsky's views on Chechnya or his political influence. Fearing arrest, Berezovsky moved to London, where he was granted political asylum. Putin's government has successfully pressured Berezovsky to sell many of his business holdings and has attempted to prosecute Berezovsky on fraud and political corruption charges, but it has been unable to extradite him. Berezovsky continues to support liberalization from abroad, but his influence is limited.
Berezovsky's image among Russians is generally poor; many consider him the most unlawful and unethical of the oligarchs and blame him especially for the country's economic collapse. A 1996 Forbes magazine article titled "Godfather of the Kremlin?" portrayed Berezovsky as a mafia boss who had his rivals murdered. Berezovsky sued the magazine for libel, and the dispute was ultimately settled with the magazine retracting both claims. The article's author, Paul Klebnikov, subsequently became the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes and was murdered in Moscow on 9 July 2004. He was reportedly shot four times as he left work and died shortly thereafter.
