mourning his demise on the contrary the moderates that his death is attracted so much attention. i learned figure in russian business exemplified nine hundred ninety s. russia he made millions while his country starved he was the subject of several books and the basis for many crime movie villains and i picked qualities of people i knew personally or was influenced by. them it's quite difficult to create entirely new persona you always come up with the car. reminding you of someone and yes. it was part of that image that i've created but he said it wasn't the only one i probably wrote some of his biographical details and. personality traits he wanted to be a living legend in his lifetime in that he succeeded his sudden death is as big

a mystery as his rapid rise to the peak of russian business and government. the english town of ascot forty kilometers from london has a population of about eighteen thousand is famous horse races frequented by the country's elite now it has a new claim to fame. spent his final years before a mysterious death. god for me what you deserved he says to himself as he looks from the other world. he died in poverty at the age of eighty seated in a rocking chair. the british social system would have just sent a nurse to care for him. she had had to wipe his dripping nose.

can't imagine that. before that that's what he did. he did. using. the. french to alexander. the interests of russian oligarchs there was a time when he was on good terms with the. business into power the wealthy entrepreneur . to be his lawyer but the invitation was declined. i don't like crazy people he was obsessed with the idea. never knew how the tale would work out in the end. you always have to work with crazy people with someone but when one of them is obsessed with politics it's hard to work with them.

politics and we are completely different things. better he was equally insistent in calling on you to join the opposition but failed to gain the sinister rest of the ninety's was now the target of derision and jokes nobody took him seriously anymore alexander the doesn't believe better he was murdered by special services what would have been the point of killing him he had long since ceased to be a threat. still but it's an incredible number of people might say that security agents. britons the americans or irishman got into the bathroom through the lavatory by dissolving into a molecular state. to realizing is james bond. with a scarf but not before saying to him. we're going to strangle you after that they get reduced to molecules i went down to level tory with the stewards later to emerge in the kremlin. shortly before his death row to penitential

put in criminal cases against him to be dropped and to be allowed to return. former head of security believes that better promise to hand over secret files on certain officials and businessmen in return for a pardon or. understood only too well let's just saying. i won't do it again wouldn't be enough i'm almost certain that he would only expect a pardon to shoot in exchange for something otherwise he wouldn't have written a letter. of the in. we're a threat to several russian. overseas but it. knows firsthand that you're in the one nine hundred ninety s. . compromising material on some of russia's top businessmen and officials he has no

doubt that better plans to use it against one of the country's oligarchs. they're trying to find that archive i think that's why they did. what he called the president he said. pardon me if i come back and i can incriminate a few people to your liking and he put in some interesting pieces of information simply writing a letter or talking in an interview with forbes would have been a foolish thing to do and i don't think he was a fool or a madman. before. he had lost the cold case of the century one russian oligarch. demanded that another. pay him five billion pounds owed from a deal with the oil company. however was unable to produce any evidence that had pocketed money that didn't belong to him in those times deals with sealed with handshakes rather than signature. business would. fortunes were being

made in months even weeks but. outstripped everybody. lifestyle was a bit like a nuclear reactor in fact he was a nuclear reactor constantly generating and spewing out excess energy and of course no one despite how healthy a person is like that for a long time and then comes the apathy. he was the orchestra conductor and the center of the universe he wanted to be the focus of everybody's attention and he wanted to be talked and written about well even if it was derogatory he said there's no black or white p.r. there's only. a ph d. in mathematics. at the academy of sciences. finally opened up forty

years of age. threw himself into business making up for lost time. and became a key business figure in the country. t.v. interview for ukrainian. politics i was ready to spend any amount of money to achieve political. spending fifteen. that was the most effective business project in my life. to build it. he claimed the project. would get their revenge. one hundred forty million rubles. money sticking to the one rule.

that made it possible for him to plunder. make money from off and. he liked under the of his friendship with the family. company already controlled. industry but still he wanted more. with the highest authorities could bring in the really big money. officials and even members of his family. when he showed them with lavish gifts this will he found a weak link to boris yeltsin the president's younger daughter tatiana. she had been married several times she wasn't chanted by bears so was yeltsin's wife nyima

who heard many good things about the entrepreneur from her daughter both were frequent guests was a french chef served sumptuous food in the relationship simplified gifts and money with money and gifts nothing else a turning point came on june the seventh nine hundred ninety four when better limousine was blown up the driver died instantly decapitated by the blast the targets bodyguards and several innocent bystanders sustained serious injuries miraculously better. and. i thought i'd be burned alive if i stayed in the car but if i got out it was a shoot me my driver died but in fact he saved my life because as usual he had forgotten to lock the door i just got out it was an incredible sensation it's not like being reborn it's a sense of purity what's happened before is of no importance problems are

unimportant you have an airy feeling overwhelming. on that day he unusually took the back seat with a blast caused little how many would later speculate that the only god must a mind to the attempt on his own life to join russia's ruling elite. to the apex of power began. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it. and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. please. choose your language. clearly we can but oh if they still some of us.

choose this is the consensus get to. choose three opinions that invigorating a good. excuse to stories get into a good life choose access to your office to. play.

play . clue. you. see so. should. you know.

about international airport in the very heart of moscow. the murder attempt provided better with a ticket to the presidential club a small circle of the highest officials associated to yeltsin and his family they

met only a few times and better off his role was that of mata suffering for the ideals of entrepreneurship he was a laughing stock after the car bomb that was the first time he appeared among the elite in the early ninety's who even nicknamed him smokey they were all glamorous people and suddenly they saw the man with burnt hairs on his bald head and a bandage face this way he takes advantage of the opportunity to attract attention be heard and take another's. step forward in his career at first better he had no real power he set himself a different task he simply wanted to be seen among the president's. he could to impress that he was welcome at the highest levels. he was very funny i think it was very important for him to dabble in the kremlin and make it clear to everybody that he. was there he was

fond of making phone calls from the kremlin he would say he was calling from the waiting room of this official about official felt it was very important for him to see the official in question after sitting in the waiting room for a long time but getting no concrete decision from him. the inner circle created his image they would say for us just. the gunmen in the gangsters are all going to show up instantly look at him. they'd exclaim but actually he was a completely different person around the same time better. with another eccentric multi-millionaire. with. a handsome face and a liking for flashy ties. business friendship and a fondness for eccentricity and self promotion. i remember sitting in my waiting room for hours on end. timidly holding his hands like this.

when he brought bad dream to me for the first time he made a better impression. later that he'd been up to his ears in crime it was badgering who did the dirty work that the jew it was responsible for. just. a heart attack his funeral would be attended by almost half of tbilisi's popular. and even former president shevardnadze. would not pay his last respects to his friend he could be arrested. death was a terrible blow to. the ninety's they had together moved from being ordinary businessmen to becoming rulers of destiny. as a complete surprise to everyone he left office in the evening.

i usually control myself in any situation. i said every word i knew i couldn't believe it. to the funeral of had given all his assets to. he would not be able to get them back after batteries death because they contracted with a handshake. last financial support after death. was left with no money because i had hidden it somewhere but nobody knew exactly where on top of that. because he lost a good deal of money he could no longer afford to fund activities. with a life he influenced georgian politics with his image the t.v. channel. gain political weight by controlling several russian t.v. broadcasters and the country's most successful publishing house.

was in a human rights campaigner. committee activist. and used the media as an instrument for political competition. but he knew how far he could push journalists. between truth and truth. the difference between half truths. two high profile one was a t.v. adored by the public to reshape the t.v. advertising market. chief editor of forbes in russia he had written about financial dealings but there was no proof that he was involved. i have no doubt. because he feared prosecution not political persecution he wants to clear principle that should be kept at

a distance from the authorities disable the mechanism that he made possible for himself to make money by maintaining close links with the government. played a key. election in one thousand nine hundred six by using his media assets after he became a leading figure in the president's. thoughts . i think politics all the time. why do you. have you the right to. hear the simple answer you can't imagine how much. needed both financial support for the election confronted with a conflict between business and special services. involved in

a disagreement with. twenty nine hundred ninety six i left the kremlin and i took no part in further events. should think about repenting. i've never been like that i didn't raise him so high. i once said i'd live long enough to see him and a few others so far he's the only one who's gone. after the success of yeltsin's presidential campaign there was also he was given control of the significance for practically nothing he was also made a high ranking government official deputy secretary of the security council to settle the conflict in chechnya. was in my days a very interesting case when i get down to stealing an oil pipeline or pump oil out of it certainly not i thought it was the all important for business politics and

for russian general. was the most disturbing lasting issue at the time. back home by taking advantage of his longstanding contacts in chechnya t.v. channels that he controlled repeatedly pictures of men rescued from chechen to captivity. the airliner touches down and stops some distant short of the airport building comes to the airport and gets into the plane. it approaches a group of journalists on the apron. to liberate or appears on the stairs it was a constant feature on the war teach channel. that he grabbed all the glory. at that time weiss people were still unaware of the fact that the time would come when they pay a heavy price for that glory. nearly all analysts so certain that for. politics was

an extension of his business so he only tackled the problems in chechnya so he'd be able to win contracts for its restoration. but. they said that his office he expected to get gazprom and the rest of the russian federation as well as c. but you have to that was a conspiracy theory. ready had enough and simply needed to protect what i have. the means of creating a stable political system. so that food. continued to do. after winning the election. official meetings between them only one appearance with yeltsin was broadcast on t.v. that was when he was being appointed to the post of executive secretary or something for security council. influence on the media

had a hundred meetings with i'm certain. the confidence of the president. she was the president's most trusted confidant it became clear towards the. health reasons. that he had made the choice and was sure the new president would appreciate his efforts. brought him down he had to go because his time. and. trouble. and.

the country against my will i can't. do or i'm going to kick the bucket because i already think. it was. the prosecutor. trying to create a political influence the course. of the presidential election in two thousand and four. former security council head mysteriously disappeared before the vote. some claim he arranged. to disrupt the. possibility. that i don't think i'm in a position to say in front of cold feet that he betrayed me or anything.

intelligent. british intelligence accused. but he is convinced that it was in fact. obviously lying we have all the records of little interrogations they contain no mention of anything like that that means this was a. security for the. control of. his former chief. pay sixty million rubles to anyone who would give putin away because he allegedly came to power illegitimately and that was complete nonsense it makes absolutely no sense. oppositionist

became the butt of many jokes. of power in russia even prompted the british authorities to issue a warning that his political asylum status could be reviewed. six or seven years ago. he said and i still the country's principle. still being demonized. and this is what i said to him. you want to hear me say yes i'm guilty. and he walked off to buy some pictures. losing everything divorcing his second wife two hundred million pounds has failed. even more money. remains with the. market value he also had to cut down service and security. people who in the months before his

death he was taking antidepressants. did smoke before but not much then at one point he started smoking two packs a day and drinking heavily his personality began to split he would say one thing in the morning but it would be something different at lunch time or in the evening several times in november he said that he'd lost the meaning of life and realized that he made many mistakes. and business was synonymous money opened the door and even to the president. would no longer work and at the end of his life there was no way back for him.

that's a meteorite. ten thousand tons told through space towards russia. with the power. of a nuclear bomb. should have been sky full on aussie.

a. little little. sixty five days.