Comment by Andrey Borodin: Here’s another proof of the fact that allegations and convictions against me and my colleagues are utter nonsense. A plot of land that was used as collateral against the loan granted by Bank of Moscow and according to Russian state prosecutors was worthless turns out to be an investor’s Klondike.

Vedomosti

As Vedomosti learnt, in December 2016, Moscow’s Urban Planning and Land Commission approved a development project of 160 hectares of the areas located within the territory between Lobachevsky Street, Moscow to Kiev Railway, Michurinsky Avenue and the Ramenka River. An official of the Moscow City Government said over 1.3 million sq. m. of real estate assets are planned to build here. The bulk of the development project will affect a 58-hectare plot that was previously owned by Elena Baturina and became the subject matter of a number criminal proceedings involving the Bank of Moscow, said an unnamed source close to the Bank. 1,15 million square metres are to be developed there. Konstantin Timofeyev, the chairman of Moskomstroyinvest, or Moscow’s Development and Investment Commission, said that CJSC Don-Stroy will be the investor of the project. (more…)

Comment by Andrey Borodin: Yet another testimony of that the most outspoken corruption fighters from among civil servants can often themselves stand at the top of corruptionist ratings.

Novaya Gazeta

Charitable funds connected with fellow students and relatives of Dmitry Medvedev are investing billions of roubles in development projects.

Many of us go in for collection – and the object of collection depends on the person’s resources. Even if one has no money at all, he can collect match boxes or beer lids. With greater resources, one can concentrate on antiques, works of art, or old automobiles. But only superstars may allow themselves to collect dachas. In the West, they are sports or show-biz stars, and in our country they are also politicians. (more…)

Forbes

The former head of the Bank of Moscow calls the charges of misappropriation of a billion roubles “a new fabrication of the investigators.”

The Russian Interior Ministry Investigation Department has brought new charges against the former top management of the Bank of Moscow. The former bank president Andrey Borodin, first vice president Dmitry Akulinin and vice president Alexei Sytnikov are charged with misappropriation and embezzlement of more than 1 billion roubles. In the theory of the investigators, from 2008 until 2010, a group of the bank’s top managers and employees organized by Borodin was practicing “misappropriation of entrusted funds through fictitious contracts for purchase and sale of foreign currency and illegally obtaining the difference between the rates in roubles”.

The first case against Borodin and Akulinin was opened in late 2010 – the bankers were accused of fraud with funds from the municipal budget in the amount of 12.76 billion roubles. Borodin and Akulinin were internationally wanted, but the United Kingdom gave Borodin political asylum (The Russian Interior Ministry claims that the same happened to Akulinin). In an interview with Forbes, Borodin spoke about why he considers the charge an invention of the investigators, what he did at the secret lunch of the Russian sponsors of the Conservative Party and what he thinks about possible extradition to Russia. (more…)

TV Rain

In an interview with the television channel Rain, Andrey Borodin for the first time referred to details of his getting political asylum in the United Kingdom and spoke about why he will not challenge the 2011 transaction of the sale of his share in the bank. (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.

Lenta.ru

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.

Vedomosti

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…)

Delovie Vedomosti

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…)

Forbes.ru

Former manager of the Bank of Moscow, named as the financier of an overthrow attempt in Russia, talks to Forbes about what ties him to the opposition and Yuri Luzhkov. (more…)

Russian opposition blogger Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and the British-based Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society published a criticizing report on VTB Group practices, which is the second in asset amount and client funds financial group in Russia with Russian government as its major shareholder.

VTB responded that the report was made-to-order and said that the corruption should be looked for among the authors of the report.

The authors of the document present a detailed list of the facts that in their opinion are indicative of the “mismanagement and questionable business practices by the VTB Group, and specifically VTB Bank.” (more…)

RIA Novosti

The Bank of Moscow will seek affected party status in a criminal case initiated by Swiss prosecutors against its former top managers Andrei Borodin and Dmitry Akulinin, a bank spokesperson said on Wednesday.

A source familiar with events told RIA Novosti last week that Swiss investigators froze the local bank accounts of former Bank of Moscow president, Andrei Borodin, and his former deputy Dmitry Akulinin.