A Russian's Rise From Car Dealer to Tycoon (Published 1997)
- ️https://www.nytimes.com/by/alessandra-stanley
- ️Sat Jun 14 1997
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- June 14, 1997
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
In the ornate 19th-century merchant's mansion he restored as a sumptuous company club, Russia's most prominent 20th-century merchant was explaining how he put aside his first love, business, to serve the Russian state.
Boris A. Berezovsky, 51, the founder of Logovaz, a car dealership he built into a major communications and oil conglomerate, has worked for the last six months as deputy secretary of the National Security Council, mostly shuttling between Moscow and Grozny to help hammer out a peace agreement with the rebel republic of Chechnya.
The boundaries between public office and private wealth are notoriously blurred in Russia. A contentious figure and a natural target for charges of conflict of interest, Mr. Berezovsky put his assets and company stocks in trust after joining the Government. He said he completely divorced himself from the management of his many business interests. ''I am not at all responsible for Logovaz today.''
Seconds later an aide glided to his side and handed him a mobile phone. ''Gluzhkov,'' he murmured.
Nikolai Gluzhkov is a co-founder and acting chairman of Logovaz, and Mr. Berezovsky's closest business associate. He is also chief financial officer of Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot. Logovaz, which hopes to acquire shares in Aeroflot when the Government reduces the 51 percent stake it has in the airline, has already taken over most of its management.
Mr. Berezovsky jumped out of his seat and took the call in an adjoining room.
In post-Communist Russia, the Politburo has been replaced by a deal-making oligarchy -- the dozen or so powerful, fiercely competitive businessmen who run the banks, oil companies and news organizations, and who banded together to bankroll President Boris N. Yeltsin's re-election.
Mr. Berezovsky is public spokesman and chief lobbyist for this new elite, which moved from the shadows to respectability in a few short years.