Russian tycoon released on bail from Greek jail

RUSSIA: Russian millionaire and Kremlin foe Mr Vladimir Gusinsky was released from a Greek jail on €100,000 bail yesterday, …

RUSSIA: Russian millionaire and Kremlin foe Mr Vladimir Gusinsky was released from a Greek jail on €100,000 bail yesterday, but prosecutors in his homeland said they were still confident of winning his extradition to Moscow on fraud charges.

Mr Gusinsky fled Russia in 2000 to avoid arrest on the allegations, during what he called a Kremlin campaign against his media empire and its often critical coverage of President Vladimir Putin and Moscow's chronic war with Chechnya's separatist rebels.

"Mr Gusinsky will stay in an Athens hotel and is not allowed to leave the country," his Greek lawyer, Mr Alexandros Likourezos, said after bail was lodged.

"We are waiting for the official extradition request from Russia, which hasn't come yet," he said. "We will see then what we will do."

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Russia's Prosecutor General's office quickly responded, saying the bail decision made no difference to its plan of action regarding the former theatre impresario.

"At the moment we are preparing documents based on the need to extradite Gusinsky, and they will be passed on to Greece when ready," Mr Alexander Zhumaty, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General, said. "We are confident of getting a fair hearing in a Greek court. We think Gusinsky should be extradited to Russia."

Mr Zhumaty told The Irish Times that a special investigative team may be despatched to Athens to help prepare the case.

Mr Gusinsky's arrest, on arrival in Athens from Tel Aviv last week, surprised a Russian business world already reeling from a range of investigations into the country's biggest oil firm, Yukos. A billionaire shareholder in the company has been charged with multi-million dollar fraud and a security official faces murder allegations.