MOSCOW, March 1 (Itar-Tass) – Andrei Borodin, the ex-chief of the Bank of Moscow, has been granted political asylum in Britain. Sergei Gavrilov, the head of the Russian State Duma Property Committee, said, commenting the incident, that it was not the first time that Britain was granting political asylum to persons who had committed economic crimes in Russia and were on the police wanted list.
“It can be assumed that the British authorities are not too scrupulous when it comes to the origins of money which such persons use to buy expensive real estate in Britain and make major investments in the British economy,” the deputy said.
Gavrilov said that a multi-billion theft of assets was discovered in the Bank of Moscow after its former leaders had fled abroad. However, Borodin claims that the charges against him are fabricated and politically-motivated.
The Russian State Duma conducted its own parliamentary investigation. In January this year, Duma called for increasing measures to protect property interests of Russia, its regions and territories as well as municipal entities. The deputies issued a statement which said that the extent of damage caused to the state by the Bank of Moscow was extremely huge. The deputies urged Russian state power bodies to take urgent measures to return the stolen bank assets.
These priority measures include expansion of interaction among law enforcers, increased role of inter-parliamentary cooperation in assistance in returning stolen property that has been hidden abroad. The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service should step up its activities and FATF and be more active in counteraction to legalization abroad of criminal revenues earned by means of illegal alienation of property.