Murdered writer 'was like a bull in a china shop'

By Catherine Belton
in Moscow [?]

BORIS Berezovsky, the British-based Russian oligarch (right), last night [in London] described the United States journalist shot dead in Moscow on Friday as being "like a bull in a china shop" in the way he reported on Russia's business elite. Paul Klebnikov, editor of the newly launched Russian edition of Forbes magazine, wrote a controversial book on Berezovsky's rise to riches. The oligarch described Mr Klebnikov, 41, as "not an honest journalist," but said he would nonetheless miss him.

Mr Klebnikov had earned a reputation for relentless investigative reporting. He was said by leading figures in Russia's publishing industry to have been working on a follow-up to Godfather of the Kremlin, his book on Mr Berezovsky, when he flew to Moscow last week. It was not clear whether the new book also centred on Mr Berezovsky, or on other aspects of Russia's business world.

The journalist was gunned down in the street near the office of Forbes, which stirred anger recently by publishing a list of Russia's "super-rich". Godfather of the Kremlin described how the businessman made his fortune from the privatisation of former state assets.

Mr Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in Britain, spent six and a half years in a legal battle with Mr Klebnikov over a profile he wrote about him. The article, in Forbes magazine in 1996, alleged that Mr Berezovsky was behind the killing of another Russian media mogul -- a claim the magazine was forced to retract.

Mr Klebnikov "was a part of my life", Mr Berezovsky said. "He taught me that that even leading Western media lie."

He added:

"In Russia, if you publish a list of the country's richest people it's like informing on them to the prosecutors. Somebody clearly did not like the way he operated and decided to sort it out with him, Russian-style, not through the English courts as I did."

He said he had no idea who was behind the shooting - and had been "totally unaware" of Mr Klebnikov's latest work.

 

 ... on the, ahem, oligarchs

 

Whistleblower Pavel Klebnikov whacked in Moscow: Oligarchs suspected | Shooting is revenge for delving into Russia's rich (and Mr Irving's comment)

Forbes magazine: Forbes Russia editor murdered in Moscow

Khodorkovsky: From billionaire to cage in court

 

Our dossier on the life and troubled times of the Russian "oligarchs"

Our dossier on the origins of anti-Semitism