Self-exiled tycoon claims funding Kremlin opposition

MOSCOW, May 31 (Reuters) Self-exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky said he was funding a political movement in Moscow opposed to President Vladimir Putin, although the group denied receiving his money.

Berezovsky's assertion, reported in the Financial Times today, will fuel government suspicions in Russia that opponents of the Kremlin are funded by foreign powers intent on damaging the country's reputation.

Berezovsky, who now lives in exile in London, said he was funding the Other Russia coalition. The movement has orchestrated 'Dissenter's Marches' in Russian cities, many of which have ended in violent beatings by Russian police.

''Definitely, I use my time, my money, to support the opposition of Russia,'' he said.

The opposition movement, keenly aware of the tycoon's unpopularity among ordinary Russians, rejected his comments.

''We have not received money and we have not been co-operating with Berezovsky,'' said a spokeswoman for the Other Russia movement in Moscow.

One of the leaders of this umbrella group, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, has also denied receiving money from Berezovsky.

Berezovsky also boasted of his role in attempting to damage Putin's image in the West and said that he started to fund opposition movements and civil liberty groups after an initial attempt to found a political party in Russia collapsed.

The Kremlin and sympathetic media in Russia have consistently alleged that Berezovsky and foreign powers have been funding the Other Russia movement in an effort to trigger a repeat of the Orange revolution in Ukraine.

Andrei Lugovoy, the man Britain has accused murdering former spy Alexander Litvinenko, fingered Berezovsky as the prime suspect for the killing in a news conference in Moscow on Thursday, although he did not provide specific evidence.

REUTERS PJ HT1725