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. Weiterlesen →

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. Weiterlesen →

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. Weiterlesen →

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. Weiterlesen →

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. Weiterlesen →