Born in Moscow in 1946. Boris Berezovsky,a brilliant mathematician and strategist, had headed the lab at the Russian Institute of Control Sciences in the Communist era,. When the Soviet Union collapsed, he took advantage of the economic and political chaos to acquire controlling stakes in companies that had formerly been state-owned monopolies. He took control of Aeroflot, formerly the national airline, Autovaz, Russia’s main automobile manufacturer, and Sibneft, which was formed out of formerly state-owned oil properties. To transfer funds around the world for himself and others in the new Russian elite, he set up his own bank. He also bought control of prime media outlets, including the powerful ORT television channel, which he used to support Boris Yeltsen’s re-election in 1996. In 1997, Yeltsen appointed Berezovsky deputy secretary of the National Security Council, where his primary responsibility was overseeing negotiations with the Chechens secessionists. He was also appointed Secretary of the Organization for Coordinating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which gave him power throughout the former Soviet Union. Because of his ascendancy to the commanding heights of the Kremlin, an elite unit of the Ninth Directorate of the FSB (formerly the KGB) was assigned to protect him.
After Yeltsen’s term ended, he supported Vladimir Putin, But by 2000, his relations with Putin deteriorated and he suffered a literal reversal of fortune. He came under criminal investigation for diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from Aeroflot. He fled to his villa in France but was arrested on a Russian warrant. After his lawyers won his release, he moved to Britain, which granted him political asylum and rejected requests for his extradition to Russia. His political activities in London aimed at undermining Putin His objective, as he told The Guardian in 2007, was regime change in Russia. "It isn't possible to change this [Putin] regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked by the reporter if he meant to foment a revolution, he answered: "You are absolutely correct." He set up a foundation, headed by Alex Goldfarb, to support dissidents, which included his former protector in the FSB, Alexander Litvinenko.
He is currently living in London and being tried in absentia for fraud.