From his home in exile, the billionaire who restyled himself as the linchpin of Russia's liberal opposition watches the one-horse race for the presidency of his homeland with disgust while waging a campaign to discredit incumbent Vladimir Putin.
Boris Berezovsky admits he has been unsuccessful in persuading Russians that democracy is in retreat under Putin, who is up for re-election on March 14. Now he's aiming for a different audience: President George W. Bush and European leaders.
"If you ask me what is my personal political target in this election, it is to prove that this election is not legitimate," Berezovsky told reporters in an interview last week in the boardroom of his swank offices in London.
"We'll try to send a clear message first of all to Mr Bush, and second to European leaders, that they are not able to accept these elections as legitimate," said Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum by Britain after fleeing prosecution in Russia on fraud charges he contends are politically motivated.
Berezovsky, who was an influential adviser to former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, told reporters he has spent about US$100 million on political campaigning and democracy-building projects in Russia. He said US$80 million went to the Liberal Russia party and US$20 million to his New York-based Foundation for Civil Liberties, which provides grants to human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations in the former Soviet Union.
Although he helped bring Putin to power, Berezovsky has waged a campaign against Russia's president almost from the moment Putin was elected in spring 2000, three months after being tapped by Yeltsin to be his successor.
Alone among Russia's then-legislators, Berezovsky published an open letter decrying Putin's plan to tighten control over the nation's regions. Since then, he has grown even more insistent that Putin, a secret police officer during the communist era, is leading Russia to dictatorship.
He accused the security services of organizing the 1999 apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that became a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade. He financed the publication and distribution of a book by a former security service agent detailing the alleged conspiracy.
Berezovsky protested bitterly when state-controlled interests took over an independent Russian television station and forced the closure of one owned by Berezovsky. He accused Putin of returning Russia to a Soviet-style state monopoly on the media.
But most Russians remain unmoved.
They view Berezovsky as a dark icon of the corruption and chaos of the Yeltsin years, when he amassed a quick fortune in financial deals -- including a car dealership network, an investment fund, and banking, oil and media holdings -- while most people saw their savings evaporate. People also question the motives of a man who was pushed from power by Putin and who fled three-and-a-half years ago to escape trial.
Many Russians also harbor deep misgivings about Berezovsky because of the unsolved killings of several people in his orbit: TV network executive Vladislav Listyev in 1995; Liberal Russia co-chairman Vladimir Golovlyov in 2002; and another party co-chairman, Sergei Yushenkov, who had fallen out with Berezovsky, last year.
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