Detectives investigating the death of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky have said there is no evidence of any outside involvement after he was found dead at his Berkshire mansion, reportedly with a scarf next to his body.
Berezovsky was discovered by a member of his staff who had not seen his boss for 17 hours until he forced open a bathroom door which was locked from the inside to find the 67-year-old lying dead on the floor.
Thames Valley police said officers were now "building a picture of the last days of Mr Berezovsky's life, speaking to close friends and family to gain a better understanding of his state of mind". Berezovsky had been suffering from depression for several months after a shattering high court defeat last year to his former business partner, Roman Abramovich, and amid mounting debts.
Berezovsky's former wife, Galina, who owns the house and had allowed him to live there, arrived while a paramedic was on the scene and has told friends that a scarf was found next to his body. Nikolai Glushkov, one of Berezovsky's oldest friends, spoke to her afterwards and said last night: "Boris was strangled. Either he did it himself or with the help of someone. [But] I don't believe it was suicide. This was not just a normal death."
Glushkov, a former deputy director of Aeroflot, who like Berezovsky fled from Russia to Britain, said Galina emerged from the scene believing Berezovsky may have been murdered. Other friends were also sceptical about suicide.
DCI Kevin Brown, of Thames Valley, police said: "It would be wrong to speculate on the cause of death until the postmortem has been carried out. We do not have any evidence at this stage to suggest third-party involvement."
He added: "We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress."
The staff member who discovered the body and called the emergency services is understood to have been the only other person in the house at the time.
Fears that Berezovsky was poisoned were raised late on Saturday when police officers trained in handling chemical, biological and radioactive material were called in. Lanes around the gated lakeside property were sealed off to vehicles and pedestrians after a personal electronic dosimeter, a device worn by the paramedic that typically picks up abnormal levels of radiation, was triggered. After specialists gave the property the all-clear on Sunday morning, scene-of-crime officers went in to continue the investigation around Berezovsky's body, which remained in situ. A Home Office pathologist is expected to carry out a postmortem early this week. Berezovsky had reportedly also suffered from heart problems.
Berezovsky's prominence as a critic of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and his repeatedly expressed fear of assassination attempts fuelled speculation that he may have been targeted.
His was the third suspicious death in the past five years to befall a businessman from the former USSR in the affluent crescent of suburbia just beyond the M25 in Surrey and Berkshire. Less than 10 miles from the scene of Berezovsky's death, Russian supergrass Alexander Perepilichnyy died while jogging last year – his death remains unexplained – while 15 miles away, at Downside Manor near Leatherhead, Berezovsky's former business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili died suddenly in 2008, sparking fevered speculation. A pathologist concluded he died of heart disease.
Two weeks ago Berezovsky met his lawyers in London to prepare for his testimony at the inquest into the death in London by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. An associate at the meeting described him as seeming "quite low" and "not as ebulliant and chipper as usual".
Litvinenko's widow, Marina, said she was too upset to comment on Berezovsky's death. Berezovsky had supported Litvinenko after he fled to Britain. He had accused Putin of orchestrating Litvinenko's murder by polonium in 2006, allegedly carried out by two former KGB agents.
Berezovsky had been suffering from depression after his legal defeat last year by Abramovich, which left him facing legal bills estimated at £100m. Lord Bell, a PR adviser and friend who saw him for lunch in London two weeks ago and spoke to him again by phone more recently, said Berezovsky was "very depressed and very low" after the judge in his case against the Chelsea football club owner ruled he was "dishonest" and "deluded".
"He was very shocked by the decision in the Abramovich case," added Andrew Stephenson, a lawyer who has represented him for the past 20 years. "To have an English judge say 'I don't believe you' really destroyed his confidence and the platform he had [to campaign against Putin]."
Bell said he didn't think it likely Berezovsky would kill himself and said his friend's heart problems would be the most likely cause. "I don't think there's foul play," he said. "I can't see any reason why they [Moscow] would bother. They had managed to destroy him and they would have preferred to see him in misery and they will be rather upset he has escaped it."
In the months after the Abramovich ruling, Berezovsky holed up in his mansion with his sole remaining bodyguard, having laid off the rest to save money. He often refused to take phone calls and was admitted to the Priory for two days of treatment, friends said. He also spent some time in Israel, where he kept a yacht.
More recently he had started to emerge from his shell, although he remained preoccupied by how to meet debts and losses with many of his assets frozen as a result of Kremlin legal actions.
Bell said Berezovsky's children were "totally distraught" at the news, saying that a family friend had told him Berezovsky's son, Artem, was "in tears and unable to speak".
