Russia claims proof tycoon funded Chechens
Published 1/25/2002 1:05 AM
MOSCOW, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Russia's Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev claimed Thursday that there was evidence self-exiled Russian tycoon and Kremlin foe Boris Berezovsky financed Chechen separatist rebels.
Patrushev, speaking on the NTV television network, said, "We have information, it is documented (and) concerns primarily financing of illegal (Chechen) armed formations and their leaders."
The FSB chief said the information would be formally handed over to "our foreign partners" in the near future.
Berezovsky, once a Kremlin insider and one of Russia's richest men, has feuded with the Russian security services after falling out with President Vladimir Putin, himself a former head of the FSB.
The tycoon, who is wanted in Russian on charges of massive fraud, has accused the FSB of organizing bombings of apartment buildings in 1999 in which hundreds of people were killed. At the time, the bombings were blamed on Chechen separatists and were used as a pretext to launch a military campaign in the breakaway republic.
Berezovsky is known to have close ties with several Chechen separatist leaders and has used his influence in the past to arrange the release of dozens of hostages held in Chechnya. Berezovsky never admitted paying ransoms or financing the separatists.
Patrushev's warning indicates a willingness to test the West's publicly stated commitment to fight terrorism on a global scale and cut its sources of financing, wherever they may be, following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, by attempting to formally link the tycoon to the Chechen separatists.
Patrushev did not say whether Russia would use the evidence as an opportunity to seek Berezovsky's extradition to Russia to face formal charges, but such a possibility should not be excluded.
The intelligence service chief's statement came only days after court bailiffs forced the media ministry to pull the plug on the Berezovsky-owned television station TV6, shutting down the network.
TV6 has been consistently critical of the war in Chechnya and of Putin's administration in general.
A court had earlier ruled in favor of an appeal tabled by a minority TV6 shareholder, the pension fund LUKoil-Garant, that the television network was to be liquidated within six months because it had accumulated losses over several years.
The station was shut down at midnight Monday, despite appeals from Berezovsky's representatives claiming that TV6 had turned the corner financially.
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