Cyprus Bailout: President Arrives For Talks

Eurozone Once More On The Brink

Updated: 3:45pm UK, Sunday 24 March 2013

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

It's an unfamiliar feeling these days, travelling to a country with capital controls - or the threat of them slamming down any moment.

You bring more cash than usual because the ATMs don't all work, but you can't take too much or you might not be allowed to take the remainder back home. The feeling's even odder when the country in question is in the euro area.

I'm writing this from on board a flight to Cyprus, filled with an odd combination of locals, tourists and journalists talking about bank haircuts and capital controls. There is, dare I say it, a palpable air of excitement. No-one is quite sure what we will witness over the next few days - and for good reason.

The Eurozone is once more on the brink. It's deeply reminiscent of last summer, when Europe contemplated chucking Greece off the edge. Around that time I asked one of the continent's senior policymakers (someone not prone to hyperbole) what would happen in Athens. He looked me straight in my face and said: "Put it this way: if you've got any money in Greece, get it out. Now."

Of course, the brinksmanship came to an end when, in that famous London speech, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi vowed to do "whatever it takes" to save the single currency. The Europeans realised that to toss Greece aside could feasibly take down the euro.

The rest is history: the ECB unveiled its Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme, markets gradually calmed down and, notwithstanding continued pain on the periphery, the crisis died down.

Until now. This weekend, once again, Europe is looking off that cliff-edge, contemplating the economic collapse and, possibly, the euro exit, of one of its members. In 48 hours we shall know just how serious it is this time around. And that slightly apprehensive sense of excitement on board is reinforced by the knowledge that nothing like this has happened for generations.

There hasn't been a system-wide closure of banks in a European nation since the 1930s. Even the collapse of Credit Anstalt - the event that triggered the European Great Depression - took down Austria's system for only two days. Rarely has economic policy been quite so confidence-sappingly shambolic. There are few examples - save for Argentina at the turn of the millennium - of a country having to resort to a cash economy because of the collapse of the banking system.

And then there are the capital controls. This weekend the Cypriot Parliament passed a bill enabling it to impose controls over a quite disturbing range of transactions: limiting the amount of cash coming in and out of the country, restraining electronic transfers and potentially even forcibly converting instant access bank accounts into time-limited ones.

To say that Europe hasn't seen anything like this in a generation is to understate the significance of this: the free movement of capital is a fundamental element of the European Union. I'm not talking merely about a Treaty of Rome aspiration, or the inconvenience of not being able to leave the country after a holiday with all one's cash - the ability for money to flow between different parts of the Eurozone is a fundamental element of the entire monetary edifice.

Don't take it from me, take it from David Marsh, who put it this way in his monumental history of the single currency, The Euro: "The ... liberalism of an integrated European financial market is one of the essential conditions within the Euro area required to provide the economic flexibility and financial lubrication to offset the rigidity of permanently fixed exchange rates."

If capital controls are in place, it's the end of this monetary system as we know it - at the very least it's probably the end of Cyprus's place within it. A euro within Cyprus will suddenly be worth significantly less than a euro in Germany or, for that matter, Greece. Or to put it in more economic, and slightly more doomsday terms, consider this: there's a pretty fundamental rule in economic policy that nation states must choose two (but not three) of the following: independent monetary policy (in other words the power to set your own interest rates), a fixed exchange rate and free movement of capital. Economists call this the "impossible trinity" or trilemma, because you can never have all three at any one time. If Cyprus is to abandon the free movement of capital, the next economically-logical step is for it to have its own independent monetary policy - in other words to leave the single currency.

Which begs the question, why has Cyprus readied these controls? The primary and most obvious motive is that it fears a sudden and enormous outflow of money from its financial system when the banks finally reopen. Simon Ward of Henderson reckons the instant capital flight could be around 15bn euros, which is about three-quarters the size of the Cypriot economy. It would be far greater were it not for the fact that many bank accounts and investments do not permit instant access. Capital controls would at least force some of this money to remain in the country - if unwillingly. Of course, it would also obliterate the economy's reputation as a place to invest for decades, but one has to presume that by this stage the Cypriots feel they have nothing left to lose.

Which brings one to the secondary motivation: brinksmanship. The imposition of capital controls would be an enormous one-fingered salute to the eurocrats in Brussels, who know full-well that measures of that kind would bring Cyprus one giant leap closer to leaving the single currency. It's no coincidence that this law was passed well before the Cypriot President's flight up to Brussels for the make-or-break summit tonight: it's intended as a sign that if the Europeans aren't prepared to help, it is prepared to countenance the alternatives.

Unfortunately for Cyprus, its hand looks decidedly weak. For one thing, the talks between the Finance Minister Michalis Sarris and the Russian authorities over a possibly supplementary bail-out to add to the 2.5bn euros one from earlier in the crisis have, predictably, fallen through. There will be no white knight coming to its rescue. Neither have the markets helped: a plunge in stock market indices or a spike in other nations' bond yields over the past week might have given Brussels cause to think twice. As it is, investors have simply shrugged their shoulders at this forsaken island.

Their rationale is, in the first order, quite sensible. Cyprus is tiny. The population of the Greek half of the island is, at 800,000, slightly smaller than Liverpool. The entire island has fewer people than Glasgow. The country's gross domestic product of around 20bn euros is less than a couple of percentage points the size of France. Even the overblown banking system is, en masse, equivalent to a medium-sized German bank.

Plus, as far as many Europeans are concerned, letting go of Cyprus might provide a useful reminder to the rest of the euro periphery of what they could expect in the event of departure: financial chaos, economic ignominy and a lengthy period of self-imposed (rather than Brussels/Berlin-determined) austerity.

If you think you've heard this all before, you're not wrong: it was precisely what some eurocrats were saying last summer, shortly before Europe turned back from the abyss. So it might be part-bluster. After all, saving Cyprus would cost a fraction of what it cost to bail out Greece.

But then, set against that, it is a German election year. Cyprus made the mistake of turning itself into an offshore laundry for dirty Russian money. Teaching it (and Moscow) a lesson would go down pretty well in Berlin. Hence the European Central Bank's deadline of Monday for the country to come up with a deal, before it switches off the financial life-support of liquidity from Frankfurt.

So that's where we are today. No-one knows how this episode of brinksmanship will end. The fudge of a deal is slowly baking in the Nicosia sun. One of the two main Cypriot banks will be restructured (for which read nationalised); high-end deposits in the other one will be taxed punitively. It's a lot like the deal the IMF suggested before someone (President Anastasiades allegedly, although he denies it) proposed taxing all depositors, not just the wealthy ones.

The main difference is that the Cypriot people have had their economy taken away from them. They are the great victims: both to their Government, for turning their state into a satellite Russian financing hub, and to the Nicosia/EC/IMF nexus which has destroyed their financial system in one short week. Cyprus was not in anything like the state Greece's economy was before this crisis: a smart bail-out deal could have had it back on the road to health before too long. Even if their savings are not taxed, after this mess it's hard to see why any Cypriot will put faith in the Government or the banks for generations to come.

Which is why we're all here today. To see what happens when a nation state is cruelly mistreated by those who claimed to have its best interests at heart.

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Earth Hour: World Landmarks Switch Off Lights

Buckingham Palace, the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower and the Kremlin - along with a slew of other landmarks around the world - went dark to draw attention to climate change.

More than 150 countries took part in Earth Hour, organised by the World Wildlife Fund. People across all continents switched off their lights for 60 minutes at 8.30pm local time on Saturday.

In the UK, the palace was joined by Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben in the Palace of Westminster and the Southbank Centre on the banks of the River Thames.

The Empire State Building before and after Earth Hour

Other landmarks across the world joined in including, Gateway of India in Mumbai, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Table Mountain in Cape Town, Times Square in New York, the Tower of Pisa and former Olympic stadium, the "Bird's Nest" in China.

Sydney had kicked off the event to cheers and applause from a small crowd that had gathered to see the skyline dim and Sydney Opera House turn a deep green to symbolise renewable energy.

"It's been a very inspiring night because it's all about hope and change," said Jessica Bellamy, one of the spectators.

Leaning Tower of Pisa before and after Earth Hour

Japan switched off soon after Australia, with the illumination on the landmark Tokyo Tower dimming down as visitors were given the chance to pedal bicycles to generate power to illuminate an egg-shaped artwork.

Earth Hour originated in Sydney with a simple appeal to people and businesses to turn off their lights for an hour to raise awareness of carbon pollution.

"I think the power of Earth Hour is in its ability to connect people and connect them on an issue that they really care about which is the environment," said Dermot O'Gorman, head of WWF-Australia as the city stood in darkness.

"Earth Hour shows that there are millions of people around the world who also want to do something."

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Pakistan: Car Bomb At Army Check Point Kills 17

A car bomb has exploded next to two fuel tankers at an army check point in Pakistan, killing 17 soldiers and wounding dozens more.

Officials said the attack in the North Waziristan tribal area, where many Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are based, destroyed two army barracks.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, which happened as former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf returned to the country after more than four years, despite death threats from militants.

Pervez Musharraf has returned to Pakistan after four years

It came just hours before Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, a former high court chief justice, was appointed to serve as caretaker prime minister in the run up to national elections in May.

Janan Dawar, who lives about 14km (9 miles) from the site of the bombing, said he heard a huge explosion and saw flames leap into the air.

Most of the soldiers who died were working for a wing of the army that is building roads in North Waziristan.

The US has funded much of the project in an attempt to win the supporr of local residents.

The Taliban are known to use North Waziristan as a base from which to launch cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani army has tens of thousands of soldiers in the region but has resisted US pressure to launch an offensive against the militants.

It says its forces are spread too thinly fighting domestic terrorism.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mentor Joe Weider Dies

Arnold Schwarzenegger has paid tribute to his mentor and "father figure" Joe Weider, a leading figure in bodybuilding, who died at the age of 93.

Weider brought the young Austrian weightlifter to the US early in his career and helped him achieve the American dream as he became an international movie star.

The Canadian, who was a bodybuilder himself, helped popularise the sport and played a key role in introducing Schwarzenegger to the world.

Weider created one of bodybuilding's leading events, the Mr Olympia competition, in 1965 and reportedly discovered the Austrian at a contest in Europe two years later.

He relentlessly promoted Schwarzenegger, who won the Mr Olympia title a then-record seven times - every year from 1970 to 1975 and again in 1980.

Arnold Schwarzenegger initially found fame as a champion bodybuilder

Weider also created the Ms Olympia contest in 1980, the Fitness Olympia in 1995 and the Figure Olympia in 2003.

He spread the message of health and fitness worldwide with publications as Muscle & Fitness and Flex, of which The Terminator star is now the executive editor.

Weider's publicist Charlotte Parker said he died of heart failure in Los Angeles.

Following his death, Schwarzenegger said in a statement: "I knew about Joe Weider long before I met him.

"He was the godfather of fitness who told all of us to be somebody with a body. He taught us that through hard work and training we could all be champions.

"As I read his articles in Austria, I felt that he was speaking directly to me and I committed to move to America to make my vision of becoming the best bodybuilder, to live the American dream, and to become an actor a reality."

Schwarzenegger, who was elected governor of California in 2003 and served two terms before retiring from politics, added: "Joe didn't just inspire my earliest dreams; he made them come true the day he invited me to move to America to pursue my bodybuilding career.

"I will never forget his generosity. One of Joe's greatest qualities is that he wasn't just generous with his money; he freely gave of his time and expertise and became a father figure for me."

Weider once said of his protege: "Every sport needs a hero and I knew that Arnold was the right man."

Schwarzenegger said Weider was the godfather of fitness

Schwarzenegger also said he helped land him his first movie role, in Hercules In New York, by passing him off to the producers as a German Shakespearean actor.

"He was there for me constantly throughout my life, and I will miss him dearly," Schwarzenegger added.

Born in Canada in 1919, Weider grew up in a tough area of Montreal. He said he was a small, skinny teenager who was being picked on by bullies when he discovered the magazine Strength.

He said he tried to join a local wrestling team, but was turned down by the coach who feared he was so small he would be hurt.

Weider built his own weights from scrap parts found in a railway yard and pumped them relentlessly. He was eventually invited to join a weightlifting club.

He won his first bodybuilding contest at the age of 17, and soon after began to publish his first magazine, Your Physique.

He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Betty.

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Musharraf Returns To Pakistan Despite Threat

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has defied Taliban death threats to return home after more than four years in exile.

The 69-year-old ex-dictator was whisked away by security forces as he arrived at Karachi airport and did not stop to greet hundreds of supporters who had waited for him.

It is unclear if the security forces detained Mr Musharraf, who faces criminal charges in three cases including one involving the assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, or acted out of concern for his safety.

His return came after the Pakistani Taliban released a video threatening to unleash a squad of suicide bombers to assassinate him if he sets foot in the country.

Hours before his arrival, a car bomb exploded near the Afghanistan border, killing 17 soldiers and injuring dozens more.

Mr Musharraf greets supporters on his flight home to Pakistan

Mr Musharraf said he was prepared to risk any danger to stand for election on May 11, marking the first time an elected government has fulfilled its term and handed over power to another elected government.

"I don't get scared ... by such kind of threat … I am going back to save Pakistan," said Mr Musharraf, who escaped three al Qaeda assassination attempts as ruler.

Mr Musharraf is expected to make his way to the tomb of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the father and first president of Pakistan.

He plans to hold a public rally for his All Pakistan Muslim League party, but police said they had withdrawn permission following the Taliban threat. However, the party's information secretary said the rally would go ahead "at any cost".

Mr Musharraf has been living in London and Dubai since leaving Pakistan

Mr Musharraf has failed to follow through on previous promises to return home but flew in from Dubai after a Pakistani court granted him pre-emptive bail on Friday.

The order prevents his immediate arrest in the three cases in which he is implicated.

Under the pre-emptive bail, he has 10 days to appear in court, which Mr Musharraf promised he would do.

He said he would "face these cases with bravery", adding that "elements in Pakistan and outside" were spreading rumours that he was not returning, but the granting of his bail would address some of those concerns.

The ex-president seized power in a bloodless coup as army chief of staff in 1999 and left the country after stepping down in August 2008 when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president after the murder of his wife, Benazir Bhutto.

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One Winning Ticket In $338m Lottery Jackpot

A single ticket sold in New Jersey has matched all six numbers for the $338.3m (£222.1m) US Powerball jackpot - the sixth highest in history.

The winning numbers were 17, 29, 31, 52 and 53, and the Powerball was 31. A lump sum payout would be $221m (£145m).

Thirteen other tickets worth $1m each matched all but the final Powerball number and were sold in 11 other states.

These were Arizona, Florida (two), Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania (two), South Carolina and Virginia.

The New Jersey Lottery said details about the winning ticket would be released on Monday.

No one had won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket for the $217m (£142m) jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5m (£385.7m) in November.

The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets - one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man - and the jackpot was split.

Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket - $365m (£239m). That jackpot was won by eight workers at a meatpacking plant in  Lincoln, Nebraska, in February 2006.

Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.

Jackpot winners have the option of receiving their prize in cash (in two instalments; one from the winning region, then the combined funds from the other 43 members) or as a graduated annuity paid in 30 yearly instalments.

Each annuity payment is 4% higher than in the previous year to adjust for inflation.

The advertised estimated jackpot represents the total payments that would be paid to a jackpot winner should they accept the 30-instalment option.

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Kerry To Tell Iraq: 'Stop Iran-Syria Flights'

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Iraq in an attempt to stop Iran using the country's airspace to deliver supplies to Syria.

The Americans are worried that the Iranians, which have to fly over Iraq in order to reach Syria, are delivering weapons to Bashar al-Assad's regime.

According to sources, Iranian aircraft carrying military personnel and equipment are flying over Iraq to Syria on a nearly daily basis.

Mr Kerry flew in to Baghdad having accompanied President Barack Obama on a three-day visit to Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan.

He was due to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior officials when he was expected to urge them to stop the 'overflights'.

Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had previously got Iraq to agree to prevent Iran using its airspace for flights to Syria, but it had so far only checked two flights.

Iran also uses a land-based route to ship supplies to Syria. Iran says all its shipments contain humanitarian supplies.

The US claims it is in Iraq's interest to stop the shipments as a deteriorating situation in Syria could spill into surrounding countries.

Homes in Syria destroyed by president al Assad's forces

US officials claim that there links between al Qaeda extremists operating in Syria and terrorists carrying out attacks in Iraq.

A UN envoy warned earlier this week that there was a "very real potential" for a spillover of violence from Syria to Iraq.

Martin Kobler said that between November and the end of February, acts of terrorism claimed the lives of almost 1,300 civilians and 591 members of the Iraqi security forces.

Mr Kerry will tell Mr al-Maliki that Iraq cannot be part of the political discussion about Syria's future until it clamps down on the shipments, a source said.

As Iraq approaches provincial elections next month, Mr Kerry will also stress the importance of ensuring that all elements of society feel engaged in the political process.

Mr Kerry also plans to speak by phone with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil, to ask the Kurds not go ahead with unilateral actions - like an oil pipeline deal with Turkey.

His arrival came just three days after the 10th anniversary of the start of the US-led war that began on March 20, 2003.

The invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein sparked years of bloodshed as Sunni and Shiite militants battled US forces and each other, leaving 179 British troops, nearly 4,500 US soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis dead.

Violence has ebbed since the peak of Sunni-Shiite fighting that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

But insurgents still regularly stage high-profile attacks, and sectarian and ethnic rivalries remain threats to the country's long-term stability.

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Tilda Swinton Sleeps In Glass Box For Art

Tilda Swinton has reprised one of her more unusual roles - sleeping in a glass box.

The Beach actress, who is known for both arthouse and mainstream films, is performing her one-person piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Moonrise Kingdom star began presenting her work, which is called The Maybe, on Saturday.

Swinton arriving at the premiere of Moonrise Kingdom in 2012

In The Maybe, 52-year-old Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day.

The exhibit will change locations within the museum every time Swinton performs.

There is no published schedule for the piece, which will be staged six or so more times this year.

Swinton first performed the piece at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995.

In 1996, the British star performed it in the Museo Barracco in Rome.

Swinton won an Oscar in 2008 for best supporting actress for her role in legal drama Michael Clayton, which also starred George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack.

Her other films include Burn After Reading, The Beach and The Chronicles Of Narnia.

She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performances in The Deep End and We Need To Talk About Kevin.

The actress was recently seen alongside David Bowie in the video for his single The Stars (Are Out Tonight).

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Central African Republic: Rebels Take Capital

Rebels in the Central African Republic have taken control of the capital and forced the president to flee, according to sources.

The Seleka rebel coalition said it had seized Bangui and that President Francois Bozize had escaped to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

There was no independent confirmation, but the account was confirmed by government officials on Sunday morning.

Eric Massi, a spokesman for Seleka, told Reuters by telephone from Paris: "The palace has just fallen. We have the palace."

Presidency spokesman Gaston Mackouzangba confirmed: "The rebels control the town. I hope there will not be any reprisals."

France announced on Sunday afternoon it would be sending another 350 troops to the country to join the 250 already there.

The rebels fought their way to the northern suburbs of the riverside capital late on Saturday before an overnight lull in the fighting.

Residents said heavy weapons fire erupted across the city around 8am local time (0700 GMT) on Sunday.

Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, a Seleka spokesman in Bangui, told the AFP newswire the rebels were planning to move on to the national radio station where rebel leader Michel Djotodia would make an address.

President Bozize is said to have fled to Democratic Republic of Congo

Col Narkoyo said: "Today will be decisive. We call on our brothers in FACA (the Central African army) to lay down their arms."

Seleka had seized several towns across Central African Republic (CAR) in December but stopped their advance and signed a peace accord with the government. 

A week ago, the two-month-old peace deal collapsed as the rebels in the notoriously unstable but resource-rich former French colony ignored a call for talks to avoid a "bloodbath".

The conflict sent terrified residents of Bangui fleeing into the surrounding countryside.

One witness told AFP: "We heard gunfire everywhere in the city centre. It was chaos. Everyone started running in all directions."

Paris-based rebel spokesman Eric Massi said the rebel leadership was urging its forces on the ground to refrain from "looting or score-settling with the local population".

The French have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the deteriorating situation.

France has not issued an evacuation order, but its estimated 1,250 nationals in the country were advised to stay at home.

It is expected that the 350 extra troops being sent to join the 250 French troops already in the country may be redeployed from Mali, where France has been fighting an Islamist insurgency.

The UN Security Council on Friday voiced strong concern about the rebel advances "and their humanitarian consequences" amid reports of widespread summary executions, rapes, torture and the use of children in conflict.

CAR regularly languishes closes to the bottom of the lists of the world's poorest countries despite extensive deposits of uranium, crude oil, gold and diamonds.

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Berezovsky Death: Body Found Lying On Floor

An employee of Boris Berezovsky has told police he forced open a bathroom door at the Russian exile's home and discovered the oligarch's body on the floor.

The employee called the ambulance service after he became concerned about the 67-year-old's welfare, having not seen him since about 10.30pm the night before.

He then forced open the bathroom door, which was locked from the inside, according to a statement released by Thames Valley Police.

Police say the employee was the only other person in the Ascot home when the body was discovered, adding that there is no evidence so far that a "third party" was involved in the death.

A paramedic who attended the scene declared Mr Berezovsky to be dead.

Police say that upon leaving the property, the paramedic's personal electronic dosimeter (PED) was triggered.

The PED is a health and safety device carried by all paramedics to measure nuclear radiation exposure. It is not clear how the device was triggered, or what triggered it. The ambulance service said that some devices are more sensitive than others.

"As a result of this, specialist CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) officers were asked to confirm that the scene was safe and clear to work in, which they subsequently did," police said.

A police investigation is taking place at Mr Berezovsky's mansion

Chemical, biological and nuclear experts searching the home have also given the scene the all clear after finding "nothing of concern".

Most of the cordon which had been put in place around the perimeter of the property in Ascot, Berkshire, has also been lifted.

Officers are carrying out a "full and thorough investigation" at the property to find out the circumstances surrounding Mr Berezovsky's "unexplained" death.

It has been reported the oligarch, who had been a strong critic of President Vladimir Putin's rule in Russia, was discovered in the bath after taking his own life, but this has not been confirmed.

He was a friend of murdered dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London after consuming radioactive polonium in 2006.

Mr Berezovsky's lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky told Russian state television he had been informed by contacts in London that Mr Berezovsky had killed himself.

He said: "Berezovsky has been in a terrible state as of late. He was in debt. He felt destroyed. He was forced to sell his paintings and other things."

Mr Berezovsky had fallen out with Russian President Vladimir Putin

It is thought he had done badly in the financial crisis. In 2009 his wealth was estimated at £450m, but he is thought to have spent £100m on the £3.7bn lawsuit against Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich last year, which he lost.

In an interview with Forbes Russia magazine on the eve of his death, Mr Berezovsky said he had lost "meaning" from his life and wanted to return to Russia.

He said he had "underestimated how important" Russia was to him, and he felt uncomfortable as an immigrant in Britain.

He admitted he had been "idealistic" about the prospects of creating democracy in Russia, and about the type of democracy that existed in the West, and his views had changed.

Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV that Mr Berezovsky had recently written to the president to ask for a pardon and to say that he wanted to return to Russia.

He said: "He asked Putin for forgiveness for his mistakes and asked him to obtain the opportunity to return to the motherland."

Speaking to Sky News, a friend of Mr Berezovsky, said she did not think his death was suspicious.

Sasha Nerozina said: "There is nothing to be suspicious about, as far as I understand. It is shocking, terrible news. It is not something you expect. He was full of life and love ... we expected him to outlive us all."

A police car near the oligarch's home

She said Mr Berezovsky had been left "demoralised" by losing the high-profile legal battle with Mr Abramovich in 2012.

Dr Yuri Felshtinsky, author of The Putin Corporation and a close associate of Mr Berezovsky, said he recently spoke to him and "he was looking forward to the future and did not seem to be suicidal".

Mr Berezovsky, a former mathematics professor, made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s when he bought up state assets which were being sold off cheaply.

He had lived in Britain from 2000, having fled from Russia after falling out with Mr Putin.

In fear of his life, he sought political asylum and moved to the South East of England, buying upmarket properties in Knightsbridge, London, and Berkshire.

The businessman survived a number of assassination attempts, including a bomb in his car that decapitated his chauffeur.

He became a vocal and strong critic of Mr Putin's rule in Russia, where had become a wanted man.

James Nixey, head of Chatham House's Russia programme, said: "He is the most virulently anti-Kremlin, anti-Putin of the oligarchs.

"He was certainly willing to spend his money, what little he had left, in an attempt to use it to end the current regime in Russia.

"He had bodyguards, there were attempts on his life that even the security service in the UK had warned him about.

"It's certainly not the first case of Russians and people from the former Soviet Union, more broadly, who have been involved in difficult, embarrassing disputes with the Kremlin, to have died in relatively mysterious circumstances."

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