March 25, 2013 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – March 25, 2013

250313TODAY: Berezovsky found dead, friends suspect foul play, Russian media show little sympathy, personal troubles and suicide suggested; Xi Jinping takes indirect swipe at U.S. in wake of Russia visit; Russian wealth in Cyprus; Magnitsky trial begins again; pro-Pussy Riot priest seeking asylum.

Police say they have found no evidence of third-party involvement in the death of Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead on the bathroom floor of his England home on Saturday.  Friends of the exiled oligarch suspect foul play; his ex-wife, who visited the house after his death, said she is ‘definite’ that ‘Boris was killed. I have quite different information from what is being published in the media.’  The Russian media have responded by branding Berezovsky an ‘evil genius’ and ‘the most odious oligarch of the 1990s’, with one state television report on his death ending with a list of his alleged crimes.  Other sources have speculated about Berezovsky’s state of mind, which had reportedly been troubled in recent months following his spectacular loss of the case against Roman Abramovich in London’s High Court last year, increasing financial woes, and alleged unsuccessful attempts to reconcile with Vladimir Putin and return to his homeland.  Exiled businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin says that Dmitry Peskov’s story about a personal, conciliatory letter from Berezovsky to Putinsounds like something made up by Putin’s people’.  Peskov says he is ‘not aware of how the president reacted’ to the news.  Mary Dejevsky remembers the man ‘who poisoned Britain’s relations with Russia’.