Any quotes used must be attributed to Sky News, Murnaghan
 

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is going on a mission to try to improve British-Russian relations by heading to Moscow later today.  It will be the first visit by a British Prime Minister for almost six years, since the murder of Alexander Litvinyenko in London in 2006.   Well Boris Berezovsky, one time mathematician turned oligarch was a Kremlin insider during the years of Boris Yeltsin but now lives in exile in the UK and as you can see he joins me now, good morning Mr Berezovsky.  It is seen as crucial in trying to build bridges between Britain and Russia is this meeting between our Prime Minster and the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Putin .  You know and have been an opponent of Mr Putin’s for a long time, is he someone you can do business with, is he someone you can trust?

BORIS BEREZOVSKY:

I have my personal experiences and I can present just my personal experiences.  My personal experience gave me knowledge that he is completely a liar and he is completely a traitor because maybe you remember, everybody remembers Putin came to power in the Presidential chair as a successor of Yeltsin.  It means everybody understood who fight for Putin had to put him forward, that he will continue Yeltsin reforms and continue to move to democracy, if he was his abdication as everybody understood , a successor of Yeltsin, without the mistakes that Yeltsin had done a lot but move forward to democracy.  We know today what we know today and not only me, who may be the first one and this is why I left Russia in 2000 immediately after Putin was elected and start to do the steps which demonstrate clearly that he is not successor of Yeltsin.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

From your experience he is a man that bears grudges but does that matter?  I mean the idea that the British Prime Minister and Mr Putin have not spoken for four years so it dates back to Gordon Brown.

BORIS BEREZOVSKY:

If you remember the other Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, she didn’t visit Russia for 13 years as I recollect but in any case it’s absolutely correct to say that Russia and Britain are great countries which are fundamental for the world and it’s necessary to talk, it’s necessary to discuss and even those who collapse in [pyre of devil?], I mean Reagan and Thatcher herself, they talked to Russian leaders, Soviet Union leaders, they tried to give them knowledge to improve the country and I think it’s positive. On the other hand, we should calculate who they are because it was a long time it was a discussion ‘Who is Putin?’, today the answer is clear, Putin is gangster, Putin is terror man because he no doubts from me organised the terror attack in London and because Litvinyenko was in London …

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

I wanted to ask you about that because I know you say about Mr Putin, he as you know said quite a few similar things about you, but that is the issue isn’t it?  Can relations ever be normalised between Britain and Russia until the whole issue of who killed Mr Litvinyenko is cleared up?  Mr Putin has made allegations about you about that as you know.

BORIS BEREZOVSKY:

But Mr Cameron doesn’t prepare to visit me or doesn’t invite me to talk about that and we are discussing about his visit to Putin and not our meeting.  I think definitely he knows that, definitely it was very proper investigation in Great Britain and definitely the state, and at the time Putin was the head of the state, he was President, is behind of this murder because polonium is impossible to get somehow except of state will supply it. 

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

But the chief suspect is living and prospering in Moscow, Andre Lugavoy, a man previously you employed.  Do you think the Russian authorities will ever relent and allow the British to question him?

BORIS BEREZOVSKY:

I think this regime, these Russia authorities, never because they know well who made order to kill Litvinyenko, it means it is absolutely ridiculous to think this regime will ever allow Lugavoy to come to the court of justice, to Great Britain, and definitely it is a great problem for relations between Great Britain and Russia.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

We are running out of time, Mr Berezovsky, but very quickly on this, it is interesting that during the course of discussion we have only mentioned Mr Putin, of course there is the President, Mr Medvedev.  Is he irrelevant in these discussions or is he someone who has now built his own power base or is it going to be Putin as President again and we may not bother with Mr Medvedev?

BORIS BEREZOVSKY:

I don’t want to speculate who will become the next President but we should clearly understand that it doesn’t matter, Putin or Medvedev, because the key man, the leader of the nation is Putin and he manages the power, he manages the situation and unfortunately it is very pity that a great country Russia is in the chair of President, Mr Medvedev.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

Mr Berezovsky, thank you very much indeed for your time and you analysis.  Boris Berezovsky there on David Cameron’s visit to Moscow, he leaves later this afternoon.