More than a rumor

I first heard about this story in the banya on Sunday and couldn't believe it was true. Now it's in the Moscow Times and it still seems unbelievable to me for some reason.

Moscow Times, Monday, January 31, 2005. Page 3.
Berezovsky Wants to Move to Ukraine
By Andrew Cawthorne and Maria Golovnina
Reuters

LONDON -- Boris Berezovsky, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, said Saturday that he wants to leave Britain for Ukraine -- a move likely to ruffle the Kremlin's feathers. Berezovsky said the victory of new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, a Western-leaning liberal whose candidacy Putin publicly opposed, had made up his mind.

"Yes, I want to go and live there with my family. And since it became a democratic country, there is no reason for me not to," Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in Britain, said in an interview in London. [...] "I do not have any business in Ukraine until now. Probably I will look for business there," he said. [...]

He was confident Ukraine's new leaders would not extradite him to Moscow, where he is wanted for fraud and embezzlement. "I was granted political asylum according to the Geneva Convention. Many countries, including Ukraine, signed it and I am sure they will respect it."

"For sure, Russia will try to extradite, but I have already proved in court that everything Russia is trying to do against me is political. If Yushchenko is genuinely democratic, I have no doubt Russia will fail in its attempts to get me."

Yushchenko, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said he was unaware of Berezovsky's aim. "One thing is sure. We will be acting in strict compliance with domestic and international laws ... in this context," he told reporters. [...]

This, I think, is what we used to call a provokatsiia. You could also call it a thumb in Putin's eye and a warm turd on Yushchenko's already full plate. Can you imagine being Victor and having to deal with this?