RUSSIA:A former Russian prime minister turned Kremlin critic was ordered to surrender his luxury dacha on the outskirts of Moscow yesterday and pay €3 million for obtaining the residence fraudulently.
Mikhail Kasyanov, who served for four years as prime minister under President Vladimir Putin, was fired in 2004 and has since recast himself as a prominent leader of the dissident "Other Russia" movement.
Mr Kasyanov also faces a second inquiry into his alleged role in the corrupt sale of fighter planes to India in a fraud estimated at more than €200 million. He claims both issues are politically inspired and that prosecutors only became active when he joined the anti-Putin movement and announced he would run in the next presidential elections.
Dismissing the significance of yesterday's verdict, Mr Kasyanov claimed the court followed directions "from the top" to bring him down. He was ordered to return the residence and adjoining grounds to the state because of violations in the way it was privatised in a complex series of manoeuvres that ultimately benefited him and his wife.
"We will challenge this decision in a higher court, because we must use all available legal procedures. But there is a strong possibility that it will not be reversed - the speed with which the case was assigned and the way it was wrapped up indicate the process was directed from the top," he said.
Mr Kasyanov, a close associate of the faction linked to former president Boris Yeltsin and the country's finance minister during his term in office, has been the subject of numerous rumours about his wealth. He fell out with Mr Putin almost three years ago when the entire government was dismissed as part of a power shift inside the Kremlin away from Mr Yeltsin's former allies and towards the security services.
Mr Kasyanov has become one of the leading figures in the ongoing series of protests by a motley collection of dissidents, which stretch from chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov to the extreme-right National Bolshevik Party. He spoke at a recent demonstration in St Petersburg which turned into a riot between protesters and police.
Apart from handing back the property to the state, Mr Kasyanov was also ordered to pay back €1.3 million for damage to the site and just less than €2 million for enriching himself illegally.
The estate, known as Sosnovka-1, is located in the most prestigious area on the outskirts of the city, adjoining properties owned by Russian oligarchs.
It was bought at auction for €300,000 in 2003 although its true value at the time was almost 80 times higher, €24 million. In Russia's booming property market it could be worth far more now. Mr Kasyanov did not buy it directly but through a series of deals ended up with the long-term lease.
Last month, Mr Kasyanov was questioned by the general prosecutor's office about a separate inquiry into the role of a Russian senator accused of defrauding the state of €200 million almost 10 years ago as part of a complex arms export deal of MiG fighters to India.
He claimed this investigation against him was politically inspired and that inevitably other charges would be laid against him.