Washington Post - 08.24.2003

The Washington Post

Russian Media Mogul Is Arrested in Greece

By Peter Baker, Washington Post Foreign Service

MOSCOW -- A Russian media mogul who fled into exile after battling President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, was arrested in Greece on an international warrant requested by Russia, officials said today.

Vladimir Gusinsky arrived at the Athens international airport on a flight from Tel Aviv on Thursday evening and was detained in connection with accusations that he misappropriated more than $250 million in loans from a state-controlled energy company. Gusinsky, who holds Russian and Israeli passports, has split his time lately between Israel and the United States.

The arrest reopened a political conflict that had largely died down after the state-controlled gas monopoly, aided by the courts, seized Gusinsky's NTV television network in 2001, closed down his newspaper Segodnya, fired the staff at his newsmagazine, Itogi, and took over his radio station, Ekho Moskvy. Gusinsky and democratic activists characterized the wide-ranging criminal and financial campaign against him as a transparent bid by the Kremlin to crack down on independent media.

While Russian authorities managed to dismantle his media empire, they failed to prosecute Gusinsky. He left the country in 2000 and moved to a villa in Spain. At Russia's request, Spanish authorities arrested him but a Spanish court rejected an extradition request in April 2001 because the fraud case brought by Russian prosecutors would not constitute a crime under Spain's laws.

Since then, Gusinsky has traveled relatively freely, though never to Russia. U.S. authorities have permitted him to live in the United States. Interpol, the international police agency, refused to put Gusinsky on a fugitives list after the Spanish decision because its secretary general, Ronald Noble, decided that the case had "a predominantly political character."

A source familiar with the latest situation said Gusinsky was detained because Greek airport authorities found a record in their computer of an international arrest warrant dating from 2000. Greek police contacted Interpol and were told there was no currently valid order to detain Gusinsky, according to the source. But when Greece contacted Moscow, the Russians said they still have a case pending against him. The Russians said they would decide whether to push for extradition by Monday, when Gusinsky is due in a Greek court.

The Russian Embassy in Athens confirmed the arrest today but declined to comment. Russian prosecutors could not be reached this weekend. A spokesman for Gusinsky said there would be no public comment until Monday's court hearing.

Russian prosecutors have recently opened eight investigations into the company and associates of a Russian oil mogul, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in a move that some have compared to the anti-Gusinsky campaign. Russian authorities are also pursuing extradition of another overseas oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, who faces a court hearing in Britain in October.

In a telephone interview, Berezovsky linked the latest developments to the upcoming elections for parliament in December and for president next March. "The arrest of Gusinsky today is just part of the election campaign of Comrade Putin," he said. "He is using all state power to fight with some people."