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…)
By Henry Meyer
Russian billionaire Andrei Borodin accused Russia of playing “a dirty game” aimed at crippling him financially by freezing his assets and called on Switzerland and other states to release his funds.
Borodin, former chief executive of the Bank of Moscow, is wanted in connection with the embezzlement of Moscow City Hall funds, according to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Borodin, 45, says he is innocent and that he hopes money in the politically-motivated case will be unfrozen “very” quickly. (more…)
In recent years events connected with Russia and Russian citizens have become a regular feature in the British media. Unfortunately, the frequent appearance of such headlines is not a result of strengthening of friendship and collaboration between the two states. Often these reports accompany scandalous trials in British courts, violation of human rights in the Russian Federation, and so on. For instance, today the Magnitsky Legacy round table sessions are taking place in the Parliament building in London. All this attests to the fact that the Russian justice and law-enforcement systems are in a deep crisis and leave no hope for fair decisions based on compliance with legal provisions or, at least, human rights. (more…)
November 5, STRATFOR
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP / GettyImages
The Kremlin has reverted to its strict policies of 2003-2007, cracking down on its opponents to get the population back under control after a tumultuous year. As part of this campaign, the last of the Western-backed Cold War radio programs, Radio Svoboda (Liberty), will shut down Nov. 10 when a new law forbidding foreign control of broadcasting licenses goes into effect. This is just one in a series of laws recently passed by the Kremlin that puts restrictions on the Internet, labels nongovernmental agencies as “foreign agents,” and cracks down on the opposition.
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MOSCOW, October 30 – RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals will hear on November 20 Sergei Devyatkin’s appeal against the dismissal of his lawsuit to invalidate the transfer from the Moscow government of its shares in the Bank of Moscow to VTB Bank, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Tuesday.
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Interfax: Russia & CIS General Newswire
Ex-Bank of Moscow CEO Andrei Borodin has accused Russian police of deliberately distorting facts in the decision to initiate his prosecution and to arrest his foreign assets.
“The attack on me continues. They present either old or unreliable information,” Borodin told Interfax by phone on Wednesday night.
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An exiled Russian banker has called in the police after a mystery chase on the M4
A RUSSIAN tycoon who fled Moscow claiming to be a victim of Kremlin persecution fears he may be the target of the Russian security services in Britain.
Andrey Borodin, a billionaire banker, claimed he had recently been the target of a surveillance operation at his new home near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
The fugitive tycoon, who has spent about £50,000 funding human rights groups fighting abuses by the Kremlin, said he had called in police after a car being driven by Mario Hinterdorfer, his personal assistant, was involved in a high-speed chase on the M4 in August. (more…)