Russia will again ask Britain to deprive a Russian multimillionaire in exile in London of political refugee status and to extradite him back to Russia, said the country's Prosecutor's Office on Friday.

 

Russian Pro secutor General Yury Chaika issued a request asking Britain to give a legal assessment of a recent statement by Boris Berezovsky, who urged the overthrow of the political regime in Russia by force, Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said.

 

Berezovsky said that he is bankrolling people close to Putin and they are conspiring to mount a palace coup, the Guardian reported on Friday.

 

"We need to use force to change this regime," Berezovsky said. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure."

 

"It is not the first time such statements have been made," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

 

Russia has been asking the British authorities "to put an end to the situation, in which Berezovsky enjoys the status of a political refugee, yet blatantly abuses this status and takes actions that require extradition, according to British law," Lavrov said.

 

Speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov said that political emigrant Boris Berezovsky will bear the responsibility for his words and action.

 

A prison waits for such a person, Mironov told reporters.

 

Despite his absence, Berezovsky could be tried in the criminal court for the crime of theft of US$50 million of the Russian air company Aeroflot, spokeswoman Gridneva said.

 

At least five criminal cases against Berezovsky have been opened in Russia: two cases over actions aimed at a violent seizure of power, one over the Aeroflot money theft, one over the VAZ cars fraud and still another over the illegal acquisition of a house and land plot in the Zhukovka health center in the Moscow region, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2007)