The exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky hanged himself in the bathroom of his Ascot home, a postmortem examination released last night concluded.
After two days of speculation about whether the businessman turned Kremlin critic had become a victim of an assassination plot, a statement released by Thames Valley Police said: "The results of the postmortem examination, carried out by a Home Office pathologist, have found the cause of death is consistent with hanging."It added there were no signs of a violent struggle.
Pathologists will now carry out further tests, including toxicology and histology, which are likely to take several weeks. A formal identification process, which has not yet been carried out, will be completed today. It is understood that Berezovsky's ex-wife Galina saw the body on Saturday and saw marks around his neck consistent with strangulation of some kind.
Berezovsky had been suffering from depression after a shattering high court defeat last year by his former business partner, Roman Abramovich. He was also financially stricken, with assets frozen and legal bills of up to £100m. He was found dead by his bodyguard on Saturday afternoon in a mansion owned by his ex-wife in Mill Lane in an exclusive area of Ascot.
The bathroom had been locked from the inside and a scarf is understood to have been found next to his body.He had reportedly told a Russian journalist the previous day: "I have lost the meaning of life", telling him at a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel on Park Lane: "I am 67 years old. And I don't know what to do any more.
"The findings of the postmortem surprised Lord Bell, Beresovsky's PR adviser and one of his closest friends, who had spoken to him regularly over the last few months as he struggled with the judge's findings in the Abramovich case that he was an "unimpressive, and inherently unreliable witness".
