The Rasputin of post-Soviet Russia: Boris Berezovsky

From car salesman to Kremlin king-maker to billionaire political exile, Boris Berezovsky seemed to play a role in nearly every crucial scene in the roller coaster drama of post-Soviet Russia.

A mathematician by training, Berezovsky's expertise at political calculus gave him power beyond his position in a career that made him many enemies - the most prominent of them Vladimir Putin, the man he helped bring to power.

In a country with a rich history of court intrigue and a reputation for opacity in the Kremlin from tsarist, his maneuvering earned him comparison to Russia's ultimate behind-the-scenes operator, the "mad monk" Grigory Rasputin.