UK Police Investigate Tycoon's Russian Coup Claims

Scotland Yard today launched an inquiry into the Russian multi-millionaire Boris Berezovsky after he disclosed to the Guardian that he was plotting a "revolution" to overthrow President Putin.

British government officials said that police would be examining the comments, published by the Guardian this morning, to see whether he had committed any offence and to establish whether there were grounds to revoke his refugee status.

The move came as Russia said it was opening a criminal investigation into Mr Berezovsky, and the country's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would ask Britain to withdraw his refugee status.

In comments that appeared to be calculated to enrage the Kremlin, Mr Berezovsky said: "We need to use force to change this regime. It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." During a tape-recorded interview, which lasted more than hour, Mr Berezovsky repeatedly said that force must be used to secure "regime change" in Russia.

He added that he was in contact with like-minded people within Russia's ruling inner circle, offering advice, finance, and "my understanding of how it could be done". Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he replied: "You are absolutely correct."

Today Mr Berezovsky appeared to be seeking to distance himself from those remarks, telling the Press Association in London that he was seeking a "bloodless" revolution. "I do support direct action, I do not advocate or support violence," he said.

However, the Bloomberg news agency quoted Mr Berezovsky as saying: "I am calling for revolution and revolution is always violent." The Associated Press reported that the tycoon added: "I don't know how it will happen, but authoritarian regimes only collapse by force."

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The police will be looking at the statements he has made in the Guardian and elsewhere."

The Foreign Office added: "We deplore any call for the violent overthrow of a sovereign state. We expect everyone living, working or visiting the UK, whatever their status, to obey our laws. We will look carefully at these and any future statements by Mr Berezovsky in that light."

Ministers were being kept informed of developments, but officials said it was inconceivable that the police would not look into a statement of that kind, as they evidently would if it had been made, for example, by an Islamist figure or group. The Home Office would also be examining the remarks to see if they constituted grounds to revoke refugee status granted under the 1951 UN convention.

Russia meanwhile called on the British government to strip Boris Berezovsky of his political refugee status after the exiled tycoon's inflammatory comments ignited a furious response from the Kremlin.

Russia's prosecutor general Yury Chaika said that Moscow would now launch a fresh attempt to have Berezovsky extradited back to Russia. He said he had ordered his lawyers to draw up an international legal request.

This would be sent to the UK. It would urge British authorities to give their own legal assessment of Mr Berezovsky's remarks. 'We will again raise the question of stripping Berezovsky of his refugee status and extraditing him to Russia,' prosecutor Marina Gridneva confirmed.

Other senior Kremlin figures went further and suggested that Mr Berezovsky had breached the strict conditions of his refugee status, which allowed him to stay in Britain. They prevented him from advocating the overthrow of a sovereign state.

His remarks set off a storm back home. Russia's state-controlled TV stations led with Berezovsky's Guardian interview as their top story, while a host of pro-Kremlin MPs queued up to denounce him.

Berezovsky's call for the overthrow of the constitutional regime in Russia was 'a crime', MP Mikhail Grishankov said typically, adding that it was time that the British authorities finally took some action.

In Moscow, prosecutors summoned Mr Berezovsky's lawyers to an urgent unscheduled meeting. They also indicated that proceedings against the tycoon in connection with allegations that he stole $50 million from the state airline Aeroflot would commence as early as next week.