Russian tycoon Berezovsky interred at British cemetery

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky was buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey County on Wednesday, May 8. The ceremony, attended by some 50 people, began at 14:30 local time. When the cortege arrived, Berezovsky’s girlfriend Katerina Sabirova and his chauffer Avi Navama, who had found the exiled Russian businessman’s dead body in his mansion near Ascot (Berkshire in the south of England) on March 23, were already at the cemetery. All other mourners came in a motorcade of vehicles, mainly rented. However some, like former Chechen field commander Akhmed Zakayev, who has been put on the international wanted list on charges of terrorism, arrived in luxury cars. When his gray Mercedes pulled up at the cemetery’s central gate, there was already a black Bentley car with the license plate reading “HI 8 TAX” standing at one side. Those present included Marina Litvinenko, the wife of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London several years ago, Berezovsky’s second wife Galina Besharova, his common-law wife Yelena Gorbunova, business partner Vladimir Voronov, writer Yuly Dubov, and former Director-General of the Kommersant Publishing House Demyan Kudryavtsev. Several minutes after the hearse rolled into the cemetery some 40 kilometres from London, the closed casket was carried into the Greek Orthodox church that belongs to a small monastery in Brookwood. About an hour later, the interment took place. Shortly thereafter the mourners started leaving the cemetery.