Berezovsky, 60, is wanted by Russian authorities on fraud and corruption charges, but has been granted political asylum in the United Kingdom, where he has been living since 2000.
"The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has ordered the Russian Security Service to investigate the interview with Boris Berezovsky, given to a journalist of the Altaiskaya Pravda newspaper, within the framework of the previously opened criminal case [forcible assumption of power]," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Russian prosecutors opened a criminal case against Berezovsky after he told a radio station earlier this year that he was planning to overthrow the administration of President Vladimir Putin.
"In the opinion of the Prosecutor General's Office, the interview published on the Internet contains an open appeal to the forcible change of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which is a crime under the Russian Criminal Code," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
In an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station January 24, Berezovsky, who was a prominent player in the Kremlin in the 1990s and helped bring President Vladimir Putin to power before falling out of favor, said the president has violated the Constitution, and that any violent action on the opposition's part would be justified.
"That includes taking power by force, which is exactly what I am working on," he said.
Russian prosecutors previously demanded Berezovsky's extradition in 2002, when a warrant for his arrest was issued on charges of fraud regarding the carmaker AvtoVAZ. The prosecution also declared Berezovsky to be the main suspect in the embezzlement of large sums from Aeroflot, Russia's national air carrier, in which he owned a significant stake.
However, the British authorities turned down Russia's extradition request, and Berezovsky dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
The exiled tycoon made his fortune in the turbulent 1990s in dubious privatization deals following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through his close relationship with then-President Boris Yeltsin's chief of staff, he became a member of the Kremlin's inner circle.
He led a campaign by Russian tycoons to re-elect Yeltsin to a second term in 1996, and was in return appointed deputy secretary of the National Security Council, then general secretary of the Organization for Coordinating the Commonwealth of Independent States, before finally winning a seat as a Duma deputy.
His relationship with the Kremlin soured, however, with the arrival in power of President Vladimir Putin, and he resigned his Duma seat shortly afterward before fleeing the country.
