London police began studying Friday Russian business tycoon Boris Berezovsky's statement to a major British newspaper that he was plotting a coup in Russia to see if any laws have been violated.
Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the U.K. in 2003 after fleeing prosecution in his home country on fraud and money laundering charges, said that he has bankrolled Kremlin insiders conspiring to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
Scotland Yard did not specify whether they began studying the statement at Russia's request. On Friday, Russian prosecutors said they would take legal action against Berezovsky and renewed their calls for his extradition.
Berezovsky himself said that he never violated the law and he is not concerned by Russia's intentions to press new charges against him.
"Any violent actions on the part of the opposition in Russia will be justified today. Including a coup. This is precisely what I am working on now," he told Agence France-Presse.
Police in Britain and Russia launched separate inquiries into the multimillionaire Boris Berezovsky yesterday after he disclosed to the Guardian that he was plotting a "revolution" to overthrow President Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, where investigators said they were opening a criminal investigation into the tycoon's calls for the use of force to secure regime change, infuriated government ministers demanded that he be stripped of his refugee status and extradited to stand trial.
In London, detectives from Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command began studying recordings of the Berezovsky interview. They are looking to see whether he has committed any offence and to establish whether there are grounds to revoke his refugee status.
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."
In Moscow, Russia's prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, said a fresh attempt would be made to have Mr Berezovsky extradited from the UK. He said he had ordered his lawyers to draw up an international legal request. This would urge British authorities to give their own legal assessment of Mr Berezovsky's remarks. Prosecutor Marina Gridneva confirmed: "We will again raise the question of stripping Berezovsky of his refugee status and extraditing him to Russia."
Russia had been asking the British authorities "to put an end to the situation, in which Berezovsky enjoys the status of a political refugee, yet blatantly abuses this status and takes actions that require extradition according to British law", Mr Lavrov said.
His interview can be downloaded here.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters are expected to take part in anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg today and tomorrow.
Last month police in St Petersburg violently dispersed a rally by 5,000 people. It was the largest demonstration against the Kremlin regime since Mr Putin became president in 2000.
Agencies
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