LONDON, April 13 (UPI) -- Boris Berezovsky, the Russian tycoon living in exile in London, told a British newspaper he's plotting a violent overthrow of the Russian government.
"We need to use force to change this regime," Berezovsky told The Guardian. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure."
Berezovsky told The Guardian that he was already funding people close to President Boris Putin who are planning a coup.
Officials in Moscow said Berezovsky's comments should threaten his political refugee status in Britain.
"We want to believe that official London will never grant asylum to someone who wants to use force to change the regime in Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Along with encouraging and financing the overthrow of the Putin government, Berezovsky told the newspaper he's spent much of the past six years "trying to destroy the positive image of Putin," who he used to support but said has become an anti-democratic ruler.
