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Powerful oligarch Berezovsky has gone on trial in Moscow, despite living in exile in London.
The millionaire businessman is a well known critic of the Kremlin and is being tried in absentia on charges of embezzling 214m roubles (£4.12m) from the Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot.
Laws were pushed through in January this year enabling suspects to go on trial even if they are not present - legislation that many suspect was pushed through specifically for the purpose of trying Berezovsky. If found guilty (which, as an adversary of Putin's he inevitably will be) the Kremlin will heap further pressure on Britain to extradite him.
British-Russian relationships are at an all time low with Russia refusing to extradite Andrei Lugovoi in connection with the poisoning of journalist, and anti-Kremlin campaigner, Alexander Litvinenko with Polonium 210. Berezovksy for one is convinced that Putin himself had a hand in the murder, claiming that "Polonium-210 is impossible to get hold of without state involvement, and impossible to transport without state involvement."
| Source: Moscow Life | Jul.02.2007 |
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