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President Boris Yeltsin fired a confrontational business tycoon from Russia’s Security Council Wednesday in an apparent bid to quell infighting in his administration. Boris Berezovsky, a billionaire who has been ranked among the world’s richest people, has acquired many enemies and was a magnet for controversy even before he was appointed deputy secretary of the Security Council a year ago. “This is President Yeltsin’s generous gift to the Russian people,” said Communist Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of Parliament’s lower house and a critic of Berezovsky. “This man has not stopped his commercial activities while occupying one of the highest government jobs. You must agree, this is nonsense,” Seleznyov told the Interfax news agency.
