Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky died

Boris Berezovsky, the high-profile Russian oligarch who became a vociferous critic of the Kremlin from his new base in Britain, died today.

A close friend confirmed to The Telegraph that Mr Berezovsky died at his estate in Surrey.

The circumstances of the death remain unknown but the 67 year-old businessman is thought to have been found dead in his bath.
It will inevitably raise questions about nefarious activities because Mr Berezovsky had survived several assassination attempts, including a bomb that decapitated his chauffeur.

He was also a close friend of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London in 2006.

Another close friend in the "London Circle" of exiled but influential Russians is Ahkmed Zakayev, who was also the subject of a plot to assassinate him on British soil.

Berezovsky amassed a fortune during Russia’s privatization of state assets in the early 1990s and then moved to London in 2001 after Vladimir Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as Russian president in 2000. He was #701 on Forbe's 2009 billionaires list.
The oligarch recently lost a $6.5 billion legal battle to former apprentice and business partner Roman Abramovich. It was the biggest personal court case in British history.

Berzovsky sued Abramovich, saying that the Chelsea Football Club boss had intimidated him into selling shares in their jointly-owned oil company Sibneft at a fraction of their value.