BEREZOVSKY GOES PUBLIC IN ATTACKS ON PRIMAKOV AND KPRF…

CIS executive secretary and tycoon Boris Berezovsky held a sensation-filled press conference yesterday. Strongly criticizing the government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, among other things, Berezovsky also repeated his call for a ban on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).

Berezovsky, while denying that he was in a “confrontation” with the prime minister, charged that the present government fails “to understand the liberal values, economic and political freedoms.” Last month, after Berezovsky and the media he controls began attacking the Primakov government, law enforcement authorities carried out searches of a number of companies believed to be under Berezovsky’s control. Berezovsky yesterday denied having any connections with Atoll, a private security firm which a Russian newspaper alleged in January had been spying on members of President Boris Yeltsin’s family (Russian agencies, March 1).

Berezovsky again called for the KPRF to be banned, arguing that “an organization which is promoting not a communist but a fascist ideology” has “no right to exist in such a country as Russia” (Russian agencies, March 1).

While some among the media today saw Berezovsky’s press conference as an attempt by a weakened oligarch to attract attention, it is unlikely that Berezovsky would have gone public–particularly with renewed attacks against Primakov–if he felt his position had not stabilized. One newspaper yesterday reported a rumor that Yeltsin had extracted a concession from Primakov that he would cease his attacks on Berezovsky (Moskovsky komsomolets, March 1).

… BEREZOVSKY ACCUSES SPECIAL SERVICES OF HIGH CRIMES.