Switzerland’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office and Russian General Prosecutor’s Office maintain relations that go beyond formal cooperation. Now, this relationship is to be reviewed by the court. (more…)
Commentary by Andrey Borodin: This is a curious confession by the general prosecutor of the Russian Federation. If he is citing such information, then the problem is too obvious and the real scale of the disaster may be greater by a factor of 10.
More than 4,600 persons have been unlawfully detained or arrested in Russia over the past three years. The RIA Novosti news agency reports on 12 February that the information has been provided by general prosecutor Yuri Chaika. “People have been in detention for years,” the head of the overseeing department said. (more…)
A comment by Andrei Borodin: That is how personal ambitions of a “banker of the decade” eat up shareholders’ funds. This is not the first case and obviously not the last.
VTB Capital’s international business may be earning five times less than what the shareholder is expecting. This may lead to a reduction in force and abandonment of low-income operations.
The expenditures of VTB Capital International have grown to 95 per cent of proceeds, which requires a reduction of business areas and personnel, Atanas Bostanjiyev, a department head, informed Yuri Solovyov, VTB first deputy chairman and VTB Capital board chairman, in a memo of 15 November, Bloomberg reports citing the memo. Mr Bostanjiyev, general director of VTB Capital plc., manages international business, a VTB officer says. According to data found on the VTB Capital website, the company has offices in London, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Sofia, Kiev, New York, Paris and Vienna. (more…)
Cross-border policing can be political
Four years ago this week the whistle-blowing accountant Sergei Magnitsky died in jail from beatings and abuse, having uncovered a $230m fraud against the Russian state. His client Bill Browder, a London-based financier, has been campaigning to punish those responsible with visa bans and asset freezes. But the Russian authorities have retaliated and are trying to extradite him on fraud charges, using Interpol, the world police co-operation body. (more…)
A.T.: Mr Borodin, why were Eesti Krediidipank (EKP) blocks of shares sold to Firmex and Genovia? Who made the decision and why?
A.B.: The Bank of Moscow sold EKP shares and got what was good money at that time for them. The price was 1.15 of the book value. In 2011 that was a very good coefficient for a bank. Most banks traded at a discount from their book value back then. Some banks, including major Russian banks, were in such a situation even later. And Kostin (BM board chairman – Editor) was aware of the transaction. In a conversation with me before that, he clearly said that they did not need that bank (EKP) and that it was to be sold. That was the commercial sense, a normal and healthy one. (more…)
He is the billionaire banker who left Russia for Britain just hours before he could be detained. Granted political asylum in February – to the fury of President Vladimir Putin – Andrey Borodin has settled in the UK, taking up residence with his wife and daughter in Britain’s most expensive home.
Now, in his first face-to-face interview since he arrived in March 2011, the former president of the Bank of Moscow has warned David Cameron to beware of the Russian leader. (more…)
Detectives investigating the “unexplained” death of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch, are looking into an alleged plot to kill a second Russian tycoon living in exile in Britain.
Police say they are carrying out an “ongoing investigation” after being told of a conspiracy to murder Andrey Borodin, a billionaire banker. (more…)
Recent extradition case in the UK highlights how corrupt officials work with businesses to stamp out rival competition in Russia.
A landmark decision by the Westminster Magistrates Court in London could make the issuing of extradition orders against Russian businessmen wanted by the Russian Federation’s authorities much more difficult. (more…)
The US statute is a pro-Russian, not anti-Russian, act
Even by its own recent standards, Moscow’s response to the US Magnitsky law, which bars Russian officials accused of human rights violations from the US, has been ugly. President Vladimir Putin last week signed into law a ban on US citizens adopting Russian children. In effect, this strands thousands of Russia’s most vulnerable citizens in often appalling orphanages, as hostages to US-Russian relations. (more…)
Exiled in London, the fallen oligarch Andrey Borodin talks about the system of power and opposition in Russia
Tristan de Bourbon – London
Exiled to the UK for the last year and a half, Andrey Borodin paints a terrifying picture of the system that governs his country.
What are you doing in London?
I left my country at the end of March 2011 for a family weekend celebrating the birthday of my daughter. I haven’t been back to my country since then. In just a few months I became an enemy of the Kremlin, in particular prime minister Dmitry Medvedev because I dared to go against his wishes a bit too forcefully. (more…)