MOSCOW, April 25 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he has got two messages from Boris Berezovsky, both containing identical texts.
“I got the first letter from him at the beginning of this year - in February, to my recollection. And the other message arrived just recently, after his death,” Putin said during the hot-line question-and-answer session on Thursday.
“It was the same text,” Putin said about the content of the letters. “Berezovsky wrote that he had made many mistakes and caused much harm. He asked for forgiving him and letting him return home.”
Putin said that one of the letters was written by hand, and the other, was partially printed and partially hand-written. The first message was brought to him by a Russian citizen, one of the late oligarch’s former business partners, and the other, by Berezovsky’s foreign business partner.
Putin said he did not reply to Berezovsky’s letters, because “for that it was necessary to carry out legal analysis, hold consultations with the Supreme Court and with the Prosecutor-General’s Office and realize the legal side of the affair.” Putin said he had always been against the publication of these letters.
“As you understand, they are rather private and personal, although I have never had a close relationship with him. We were barely acquainted,” Putin explained. “And yet he addressed me with a request.”
Putin said that some members of his entourage had urged him to make the messages public at once.
“I must thank the Lord He saved me from doing that,” Putin said.
As far as the possibility of Berezovsky’s burial in Russia is concerned, Putin said that he was not in the position to object to this.
“Am I supposed to issue some sort of permission? It’s an intra-family business,” he said.
Putin also pointed out that Russia had no evidence whatsoever pointing to an involvement of foreign secret services in Berezovsky’s death.