RUSSIA:Russia demanded the immediate extradition from Britain of exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky last night after he called for a revolution to oust president Vladimir Putin.
The comments from one of Mr Putin's arch-critics and the former employer of poisoned ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko came just ahead of a flashpoint rally today in Moscow by dissidents.
The story made headlines in the Russian media yesterday, second on the main evening news on Russia 1 to a Duma resolution attacking a critical US human rights and democracy report.
The Russian public prosecutor, Yury Chaika, last night said he would open a fresh file on Mr Berezovsky's call to arms against the Kremlin and restarted a probe into allegations of financial misconduct by him.
President Putin's spokesman also called on Britain to immediately send the oligarch back to Russia, arguing that advocating the overthrow of the Kremlin was in breach of his asylum status in the UK.
"His remarks are being treated as a crime," said Mr Putin's spokesman. "We want to believe that official London will never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia."
The reaction from the Kremlin was swift, following the publication in the Guardian newspaper of an interview with the billionaire. He helped to make Mr Putin the president before falling out acrimoniously with him.
"We need to use force to change this regime," Mr Berezovsky told the Guardian.
"It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure."
Claiming he was seeking a revolution, he said that some elements of the Russian elite agreed with his views that Mr Putin had over-centralised power and was in breach of the Russian constitution.
Last night, Mr Berezovsky, who made his money in the chaotic early 1990s, dismissed the possibility of his extradition in comments to Russian websites, where he described as "excellent" the calls by the Kremlin for his extradition.
Mr Berezovsky's criticism appears to be playing into the growing mood in Russia of a foreign conspiracy to undermine the country's resurgence. It came on the same day as Russian MPs denounced the latest US state department report on Russia, which they claimed was politicised and intended to encourage regime change in Russia to benefit Washington.
Police in Moscow were already preparing to block a rally by the Other Russia movement in central Moscow today, with more than 9,000 police called up to prevent plans for an illegal march through the city.
While organisers like former chess grand master Gary Kasparov anticipated at least 5,000 protesters, the police said there would be no more than 1,000.
Mr Kasparov told The Irish Times this week that the mood in Russia was changing, with growing unhappiness with the Kremlin.
He claimed that if 50,000 people took to the streets of Moscow, then it would provoke a regime change. "The number you need to make our case and lead to an endgame is much lower than you would need in free countries," he said.
"We don't want to have a violent confrontation," he added. "It would give the government another chance to say that such marches are just fights."