Russian businessman and former deputy secretary of Russia's security council Boris Berezovsky has announced that he will give millions of dollars to human rights organizations and is planning to fund a new political party to oppose President Vladimir Putin, whom he helped bring to power in 1999 and 2000.

The International Foundation for Civil Liberties, created by Berezovsky in December with an initial donation of $25 million, has selected 163 Russian organizations from among 300 applicants. The organizations, which range from environmental groups to press freedom and prisoners' rights groups, will each receive up to $15,000 annually for the next four years.

"I am really trying to help those who want to live in Russia," said Berezovky. "One of the most important elements is forming institutions of civil society."

Critics of Berezovsky — who fled Russia in November after prosecutors looking into the embezzlement of nearly $1 billion from the national airline Aeroflot indicated they wanted to question him — have argued that his past business dealings and political manipulations call into question the integrity of his philanthropic activities.

"Berezovsky's entire reputation is connected to a political history that is far from straightforward and to his influence on political processes," media analyst Anna Kachkayeva told the Associated Press. "This makes the actions of people who try to cast him as a new dissident strange, to say the least."