Fugitive Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky is the one who ordered the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Col Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, former top investigative officer in the Moscow police, accused of organizing the murder back to 2006, testified.

After Pavlyuchenko stroke a deal with prosecutors he disclosed he conspired with Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, native of Chechnya. Pavlyuchenko testified that Berezovsky passed his orders through Gaitukayev, first to watch Politkovskaya, then to execute the murder on 7 October, the birthday of Vladimir Putin.

Earlier Russian officials spoke about possible involvement of Berezovsky in the crime. In April 2008 chief investigator of the prosecutor general's office Dmitry Dovgy pointed to Berezovsky, saying that Khoj-Akhmed Nukhayev was his intermediary. Now Dovgy is doing his 9 year prison term after he was found guilty of accepting the bribe.

News about fresh accusations did not came as a surprise to Berezovsky, who is escaping Russian justice in the UK now, the Russian Mafia (rumafia.com) reports. Berezovsky said that earlier Putin had spoke publicly about Berezovsky's involvement in the murder of Politkovskaya, saying that the murder could trace to London. Berezovsky linked new accusations to the current political situation in Russia and pre-December 4 election "tensions".