MOSCOW, March 1 (Itar-Tass) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s press-secretary, Natalya Timakova, has said that the charges brought against the former president of the Bank of Moscow, Andrei Borodin, are purely criminal.
Timakova told Itar-Tass in an interview the point at issue is a criminal investigation and “the current owners of the Bank of Moscow know the businessman and the problems of the Bank of Moscow is faced with due to his activities better than anybody else.”
Timakova said it was deplorable the practices of granting political asylum in other countries, in particular, in Britain, ignore such facts as the applicant’s previous wrongdoings, presence on the wanted list of the Interpol or the type of criminal prosecution the wrongdoer may be faced at home.
“It is most important to say as loudly as possible about political persecution. That serves as the best guarantee of getting an asylum,” Timakova said.
Earlier, Borodin himself told the daily Vedomosti he had been granted political asylum in Britain.
“My lawyers have filed an application for political asylum at the Home Office. They explained that in Russia my colleagues and I are subject to politically-motivated persecution,” he said.
In Russia, the former president of the Bank of Moscow, Andrei Borodin, and his former vice-president, Dmitry Akulinin, are accused of several cases of theft committed with the use of fraudulent schemes. In part, they are accused of defrauding a lending institution of 12.5 million rubles.