KEY POINTS:
Has the Kremlin declared open season on the Russian dissident community in London?
Billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky and the former Chechen rebel Akhmed Zakayev certainly think so. And it seems that British security officials share their fears.
Yesterday Berezovsky was taking no chances, after it emerged that a Russian man had been arrested and deported from Britain on suspicion of mounting a plot to kill him.
Berezovsky appeared at a news conference, held only 200m from Downing Street, accompanied by several bodyguards and a unit of London police, and accused Vladimir Putin of trying to kill him last month.
Why would the Russian President embark on such a reckless project after categorically denying accusations that he was somehow responsible for the fatal radiation poisoning of Berezovsky's employee Alexander Litvinenko last November?
"Because I am one of the most important witnesses in the Litvinenko murder," Berezovsky said. The suspected murderer of the former security agent visited the Russian billionaire's office last November as he left a trail of polonium-210 across London, exposing hundreds of people to radiation contamination.
"They are trying to reach me because I concentrate a group of people who create real opposition, an opposition able to act, and I have enough money to support this opposition," he went on.
Berezovsky said he had funded the Russian opposition to the tune of US$150 million ($189 million) to US$200 million since fleeing Russia in 2001.
He also disclosed that another close friend of Litvinenko, the former Chechen rebel Zakayev, also lived in fear of his life.
The timing of the first reports about the Berezovsky hit man, in Wednesday's Sun newspaper, raised suspicions. They came 24 hours after Britain expelled four diplomats over Russia's failure to hand over the prime suspect in the Litvinenko case, former Russian security agent Andrei Lugovoy. They appeared to be one more volley fired by Berezovsky in his war with the Kremlin since Putin, his former ally, turned on the Russian oligarchs after becoming President.
Berezovsky is now a wanted man in Moscow, having been accused of embezzling millions from the Russian national airline Aeroflot, charges he says are politically motivated.
However, security sources yesterday confirmed that a Russian man in his 30s was arrested by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch on June 21 after being tracked for more than a week by police and MI5 when he arrived in the country.
According to the sources, the suspect arrived from Moscow and was followed while he made contact with a number of people in an attempt to buy a handgun. The police and MI5 waited to see whether he would be able to acquire a firearm before making the arrest. The decision was taken to move in after he failed to do so.
The man was questioned at the high security Paddington Green police station - used for terrorist suspects - for two days and then handed over to the immigration services who revoked his visa and deported him.
One reason the man was not charged was because he was not armed. And although intelligence had led the security agencies to believe that a plot was being organised against Berezovsky, there was not enough evidence to put before a court, according to security sources.
Berezovsky said he was advised by police to leave the country for a week and returned only when the threat had been lifted.
- INDEPENDENT
