Konstantin Natanovich Borovoi (russian: Константи́н Ната́нович Борово́й; born 30 June 1948) is a

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Russian politician and entrepreneur, Russian Parliament Member (1995–2000), former Chair of Party of Economic Freedom (1992–2003), and Chair of Party Western Choice (since 17 March 2013).

Biography

Borovoi was born in 1948 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and is the son of a math professor. He is a graduate of

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (1974). In 1990, he founded the first Russian commodities market, and was its president from 1990 to 1992. He also opened the first clearing bank, an investment company and the first business-news wire. He was a financial director of Russia's Open Film Festival. In 1992, he created an Economic Freedom Party (, ''Partiya Ekonomicheskoi svobody''). The party ran in the 1995 parliamentary elections, but received 0.13% of the proportional representation vote, failing to cross the

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

. However, it did win a constituency seat in the

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

, taken by Borovoi. The party was deregistered in 2003. In April 1996, he was speaking with the

President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria The president of Ichkeria, formally the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was the head of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1991 to 2007, the Islamic Republic that existed until the victory of the Russian Federation in the Secon ...

Dzhokhar Dudayev Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (, ; russian: Джохар Мусаевич Дудаев; ; 15 February 1944 – 21 April 1996) was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen separatist leader who was the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichke ...

by phone when Dudayev was assassinated by two

laser-guided Laser guidance directs a robotics system to a target position by means of a laser beam. The laser guidance of a robot is accomplished by projecting a laser light, image processing and communication to improve the accuracy of guidance. The key ide ...

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

s, after his location was detected by a Russian

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

, which intercepted his phone call. Up until December 1999, Borovoi was a member of the

, representing the Tushino constituency. In the spring of 2010, together with

Valeriya Novodvorskaya Valeriya (russian: Валерия) is a stage name of Alla Yurievna Perfilova (russian: Алла Юрьевна Перфилова, born April 17, 1968 in Atkarsk), a Russian singer and fashion model. Valeriya, who is a recipient of the titles Pe ...

, he created a liberal political party, Western Choice. On 17 March, he was elected its president. In 2019, Borovoi fled to the United States after learning that there were plans to assassinate him.Russia's disinformation campaign against the U.S.
Penn Today.

Political activism

Borovoi self-identifies primarily as a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. In 1991, he participated in the resistance to the Communist Coup d'État in Russia

State Committee on the State of Emergency The State Committee on the State of Emergency (), abbreviated as SCSE (), was a group of eight high-level Soviet officials within the Soviet government, the Communist Party, and the KGB, who attempted a coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev on ...

(GKChP). On 20 August 2001, he and the 2,000 members of his stock exchange carried a huge flag of Russia to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, Russia's parliament building. In the spring of 2010, he was among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin campaign "

Putin Must Go "Putin Must Go" () is a Russian website and public campaign organised for the collection of signatures to an open letter demanding the resignation of President of Russia, President (formerly Prime Minister of Russia, Prime Minister) Vladimir Put ...

" (Путин должен уйти). The campaign was begun by a coalition of opposition to Putin who regard his rule as lacking any rule of law. Together with

, he made video clips which he published on

Live Journal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, a ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. In 2012, he created a campaign called "Russia without Hitler". In 2016, he created the Valeriya Novodvorskaya Foundation.

Bibliography

* Konstantin Borovoi, ''The Price of Freedom''. M.: Novosti, 1993. 240 pages, 100 000 copies. * Konstantin Borovoi, ''Twelve Most Successful. How to Become Rich''. M.: Vagrius, 2003. 224 pages. * Konstantin Borovoi, ''Prostitution in Russia. Report from the bottom of Moscow''. M.: Vagrius, 2007. 272 pages. ,

References

External links

Western Choice website
*
Konstantin Borovoi: Putin and Russian Involvement in 9/11 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borovoi, Konstantin 1948 births Living people Businesspeople from Moscow Politicians from Moscow Moscow State University alumni Party of Economic Freedom politicians Second convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian human rights activists