______________________________
Exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky urged Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev to persuade Prime Minister Vladimir Putin not to run for the presidency in March. In a letter published by Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday, the London-based tycoon and outspoken Kremlin critic asked Patriarch Kirill to “try to help Putin gather his wits”. Putin’s widely seen as a favourite to win March’s vote despite growing public discontent and mass demonstrations against election fraud last month. Berezovsky, who was one of the people who helped bring Putin to power in late 1990s, according to his biographer Paul Klebnikov, warned the patriarch, “Protest rallies may lead to thunderous cannonades. If blood’s shed, Putin will be held accountable before the people, before his conscience, and before history. However, you’ll answer before God. It’s in your power today to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Help him hear the voice of the people”.
The patriarchal office said that His Holiness would ignore Berezovsky’s call. Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky, the head of the patriarchal press service, told RIA-Novosti, “In his televised speech Patriarch Kirill answered all questions concerning the present situation and he said that he favoured dialogue between the authorities and the opposition, for gradual, not drastic, changes in course. The patriarch has addressed all questions and he isn’t going to respond to Boris Berezovsky’s call”.
In November 2007, a Russian court sentenced Berezovsky to six years in jail in absentia for stealing millions of dollars from the Russian airline Aeroflot in the 1990s. In June 2009, he was sentenced to a further 13 years in absentia for stealing thousands of cars from carmaker AvtoVAZ, also in the 1990s.
16 January 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120116/170783864.html
