Plot to Kill Russian Exile Thwarted

"I was advised by the police to leave the country if I could. I went overseas for a week and then the police informed me that I could return." He was asked by the authorities not to reveal the details of the plot.Berezovsky was told to leave the country between June 27 and July 4. Berezovsky stated on television that the warning by the London police had confirmed a similar one issued three months earlier by a Russian source."Someone who I know would come to London and ask to meet me, and he would kill me openly … and he would explain later that it was just business reasons," he said.

In July 2006, the Russian Duma (parliament), which is under President Vladimir Putin's control, passed a law authorizing the Russian president to use the secret services as "death squads" in order to eliminate "extremists," even on the foreign territory (Federal Law of 27 July 2006 N 153-F3).On the same day, the Duma amended another law that expands the definition of "extremism" in a way that includes anyone "libelously" critical of the Kremlin (Federal Law of 27 July 2006 N 148-F3)."A stage is set for any critic of Putin's regime here, especially those campaigning against Russian genocide in Chechnya, to have an appointment with a poison-tipped umbrella. According to the statement by the RF [Russian Federation] defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, the black list of potential targets is already composed," wrote Vladimir Bukovsky and Oleg Gordievsky in a letter to the London Times on July 11. Read full story