Kremlin Insider Makes a Puzzling Turnabout

MOSCOW — What game is Boris Berezovsky playing?

Russia’s best-known tycoon and Kremlin intriguer made a new play in the country’s political games Monday by announcing that he intends to resign from parliament to protest the policies of the man he helped put in power: President Vladimir V. Putin.

“I do not want to take part in the dismantling of Russia and the imposition of authoritarian rule,” Berezovsky told a news conference. He said he plans to turn in his letter of resignation Wednesday.

Berezovsky claims to have serious reservations about Putin’s plans to strengthen Kremlin control over the provinces and the country’s quasi-legal business empires.

He insisted that he still supports the president, but he took Putin to task for what he called “strategic failures”--by not starting political negotiations to end the war in Chechnya, by waging war against big business and by trying to oust governors from the upper house of parliament.

Berezovsky said he could no longer stomach being part of the Duma, parliament’s lower house, where he represents the tiny ethnic republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia. He said the Duma, now dominated by pro-Kremlin parties, has turned into a virtual rubber stamp for the president.

It is hard to tell how sincere Berezovsky was, and how much political gamesmanship went into his comments.

All of his proposals so far would clearly serve his own personal and financial interests. In Monday’s news conference, he continued to press for amnesty for those--including himself--who took part in the privatization of state property in auctions widely believed to have been rigged in favor of insiders. In recent weeks, prosecutors appear to have launched a campaign against Russia’s big businessmen, raiding the offices of several of their companies to seek evidence of financial wrongdoing.

An amnesty would seal Berezovsky’s hold on his empire, which includes one of the country’s largest auto companies, LogoVAZ, and its most widely watched TV network, ORT.

Moreover, in political terms, Berezovsky is such an unpopular figure in Russia that many are asking whether his opposition to Putin’s plans is actually a double game: associating himself with the opposition in order to discredit it and ensure that Duma members will consolidate in favor of Putin. As a side benefit, Berezovsky can build some collateral support among the governors.

“Whatever motives are driving him are a bit strange,” said Nikolai Fyodorov, governor of the republic of Chuvashia and one of the most vocal opponents of Putin’s parliamentary restructuring plans. “Perhaps it’s some sort of act of despair. Perhaps it’s some sort of deep, humanitarian concern, and perhaps some sort of recognition of responsibility, however he may understand that.”

Andrei A. Piontkovsky, director of the Independent Institute for Strategic Studies, said he believes that Berezovsky, who has moved in and out of favor with the Kremlin inner circle--popularly known as “The Family”--is now seriously on the outs. As a result, he’s been forced to seek support by taking up the governors’ cause.

“Oddly enough, everything Berezovsky is now saying about the mistakes of the Kremlin is very true, and I can’t but agree with it,” Piontkovsky said. “But I am convinced that it is not what Berezovsky is really worried about. I am sure Berezovsky can’t be really concerned with the interests and fate of Russia. I believe what really has happened is that Berezovsky has finally understood full well that he has been pushed away from the Kremlin, from the president and The Family and the levers of influence he used to enjoy there.”

So far, the government’s raids have all been aimed at Berezovsky’s business rivals--suggesting that the Kremlin still has favored and disfavored oligarchs. Still, Piontkovsky and other analysts said, Berezovsky is likely to fear that sooner or later, the Kremlin may send the investigators in his direction.

“Berezovsky is a very clever man, and he understands that sooner or later Putin, in his scare game with the oligarchs, will call his number, especially since Berezovsky may have more dark business secrets to hide than the rest,” said Dmitri Y. Furman, a senior political analyst with the Institute of Europe.

“So Berezovsky throws down his glove in a preemptive maneuver so that when his time comes, he will look not like an ordinary criminal, but like a political fighter who suffers for freedom and justice,” Furman said.

Most analysts describe Putin’s Kremlin as having two major centers of power: The Family and the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the former KGB. The Family picked Putin to succeed former President Boris N. Yeltsin. At the time, Putin was head of the FSB. As a result, both groups have a claim on the president’s loyalties.

Berezovsky has frequently locked horns with the FSB, even accusing it of attempting to kill him. If his relations with The Family are cooling, Piontkovsky said, Berezovsky needs to create a new political base for himself. And at the moment that appears to be the governors, who are resisting Putin’s scheme to take away their parliamentary seats and give them to representatives chosen by regional parliaments.

A twist in the scenario involves Berezovsky’s parliamentary immunity. Like all other deputies, as long as he remains a member of parliament, Berezovsky has immunity from prosecution. And because he has been named a key figure in a number of corruption investigations, many observers have suggested that he ran for parliament last year more to gain immunity than to fight for the residents of his tiny Caucasian republic. As recently as Friday, he was called into the prosecutor’s office to answer questions about money flows from the national air carrier Aeroflot, in which he is believed to have significant holdings.

Berezovsky insisted that he does not need immunity.

However, Piontkovsky noted that the Duma, where Berezovsky has few allies, has the option of voting to remove his immunity.

“So he is not only not losing much, but in fact is gaining a halo of political martyrdom,” Piontkovsky said. “With that, it will be much more convenient for him to ask for asylum abroad if worse comes to worst than if he asks for it simply as a thief under threat of prosecution.”

If past is precedent, whether Berezovsky’s score rises or falls, he won’t leave the game.

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Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.