MOSCOW - Activists of a liberal political party voted Sunday to exclude one of their leaders in the latest stage of a long-running feud between tycoon Boris Berezovsky and the rest of the party's founders.

The central council of Liberal Russia voted to exclude lawmaker and Viktor Pokhmelkin from the party's ranks. Pokhmelkin, a co-chairman of the party, said the central council meeting had been called in violation of the party's charter and that the decisions made there had no force.

Pokhmelkin said the meeting had been arranged by Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is now a virulent opponent of President Vladimir Putin. Berezovsky, who lives in London in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption charges he claims are politically motivated, took part in the meeting via video link.

Berezovsky was a co-chairman and financial backer of Liberal Russia until he was kicked out of the party in October for making overtures to the Communists. He continued to claim membership in Liberal Russia and has the loyalty of some of the party's regional branches.

On Sunday, the central council voted to restore Berezovsky's membership.

Pokhmelkin called the participants in Sunday's meeting "impostors," according to the Interfax news agency.

Co-chairman Boris Zolotukhin told Interfax that any officially registered regional branches of Liberal Russia that took part in the meeting would be expelled.

Zolotukhin said that only the faction led by him and Pokhmelkin has the right to call itself "Liberal Russia," since their group was registered by the Justice Ministry under that name.

A third co-chairman of Liberal Russia, Sergei Yushenkov, was shot dead outside his apartment building April 17, just hours after announcing the group had been registered by the Justice Ministry after months of delays. The registration allows Liberal Russia to run as a party in December's parliamentary elections.

Some politicians have suggested that Berezovsky was behind the killing. Others, including Berezovsky, say Russian security services ordered the murder in retaliation for Yushenkov's criticism of Putin.