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Thursday, 16 November, 2000, 17:04 GMT
Russian tycoon 'afraid to return home'
![]() Mr Berezovsky: anxious at what lies in store in Moscow
Russian media mogul Boris Berezovsky has said that fears for his personal safety are behind his delayed return to Russia to face corruption charges.
Mr Berezovsky refused to return from New York to Moscow for questioning, instead giving a live interview to Russian NTV in which he said that the alleged threats against him came from the highest level.
"He said, quite unambiguously, replying to a question which mentioned my name, that he was going to hit my head with a club," Mr Berezovsky said. "Naturally, the fact that the president of a great and mighty state expresses himself in such terms cannot leave me unimpressed. "This is a direct threat to me on the part of the president, which was pronounced for the second time," he added. The case against Mr Berezovsky and another media mogul, Vladimir Gusinsky, head of Most-Media, have raised questions over Mr Putin's commitment to the freedom of the press. Politically motivated He said he would not be prepared to return home until he was satisfied that the Russian judiciary was not simply acting on the orders of Mr Putin. Russian prosecutors have accused Mr Berezovsky of siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars from the national airline, Aeroflot, into Swiss bank accounts. He has dismissed the investigation as being politically motivated. "I will return to Russia only when I am sure that what is called the Aeroflot case is really considered in compliance with the law and not in line with instructions, even if these have been issued by the top-level boss," he said. Election support Mr Berezovsky said that his TV channel had backed Mr Putin in last year's presidential election, using funds from firms linked to the airline.
"And I think there is no need now to explain who Russian Public TV supported during the parliamentary election campaign and the presidential election campaign," he added. Mr Berezovsky, who is Jewish, said he was also reluctant to return for as long as politicians were allowed to get away with making anti-Semitic remarks. He said that in a recent election in the Kursk region, "a man was elected who is fanning inter ethnic strife in practical terms, doing this quite openly". "He mentioned my name... and said that Jews were destroying Russia."
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