Police raid Aeroflot office

Moscow - An investigation into whether Russia's most controversial tycoon spied on President Boris Yeltsin's family escalated…

Moscow - An investigation into whether Russia's most controversial tycoon spied on President Boris Yeltsin's family escalated yesterday as masked police raided the offices of Aeroflot, the country's largest airline.

The Soviet-era giant is run by executives controlled by Mr Boris Berezovsky, a billionaire reputedly linked to an array of Kremlin intrigues. Police seized stacks of documents from Aeroflot's Moscow office and announced they had stumbled across "possible criminal activity" by another Kremlin powerbroker - Mr Yevgeny Shaposhnikov.

The former Soviet defence minister acts as Mr Yeltsin's most senior adviser. He headed Aeroflot until 1995.