Berezovsky asked Putin for forgiveness before death

RUSSIA: Oligarch and Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky asked Vladimir Putin for forgiveness and permission to return to Russia shortly before his death, the Russian president's spokesman said on Saturday.

“Some time ago, maybe a couple of months back, Berezovsky sent Putin a letter that he personally wrote in which he said that he realises that he had committed a great number of mistakes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television.

“He asked Putin for forgiveness for his mistakes and asked him to obtain the opportunity to return to the motherland,” said Peskov.

The spokesman added that he did not know how Putin had reacted to the letter.

Peskov said the Russian leader “had been informed” of Berezovsky's death. “I am not aware of any sort of reaction from President Putin about the news of Berezovsky's death,” he said.

“The only thing that I can say is that it is doubtful that news of the death of a person such as him can prompt any positive response,” said Peskov. Berezovsky died Saturday in exile in London at the age of 67.

AFP