RUSSIA: RUSSIAN PROSECUTORS HAVE OPENDED A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO EX-PRIME MINISTER AND OUTSPOKEN KREMLIN CRITIC MIKHAIL KASYANOV

Record ID: 647312

  • Title: RUSSIA: RUSSIAN PROSECUTORS HAVE OPENDED A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO EX-PRIME MINISTER AND OUTSPOKEN KREMLIN CRITIC MIKHAIL KASYANOV
  • Date: 11th July 2005
  • Summary: (BN17) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE) (REUTERS) 1. SV MIKHAIL KASYANOV, THEN PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA STANDING IN KREMLIN HALL 0.08 2. SV MIKHAIL KASYANOV AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN TOASTING DELEGATION FROM BELARUS 0.25 3. SV KASYANOV HANDING FLOWERS TO PUTIN AFTER PUTIN'S VICTORY IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 0.34 4. SV KASYANOV, AS ACTING PRIME MINISTER, ENTERING CONFERENCE ROOM AND GREETING INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) DELEGATION 0.56 5. SV/MCU KASYANOV SEATED AROUND TABLE AND TALKING TO IMF DELEGATES (2 SHOTS) 1.10 6. SLV ACTING PRIME MINISTER MIKHAIL KASYANOV GREETING WORLD BANK PRESIDENT JAMES WOLFENSON 1.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA85KTQW008FN8E4HXI2ES78V8L
  • Story Text: Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal
    investigation into ex-prime minister and outspoken Kremlin
    critic Mikhail Kasyanov.



    Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal
    investigation into ex-prime minister and outspoken Kremlin
    critic Mikhail Kasyanov, Interfax news agency quoted a
    source in the General Prosecutors office as saying on
    Sunday.

    The prosecutors office was not available for comment,
    and Interfax did not say why the case had been opened but a
    previous case opened against an aide to the ex-premier was
    widely seen as a warning to Kasyanov to stay out of
    politics.

    Critics say the Kremlin uses Russia's court system to
    crush potential opponents, pointing to the legal assault on
    ambitious multi-billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky who was
    jailed for fraud in a case widely seen as politically
    motivated.

    Kasyanov, sacked by President Vladimir Putin shortly
    before the Kremlin head's re-election in 2004, returned to
    politics earlier this year with savage attacks on his
    former boss, accusing him of backsliding on democracy.

    He hinted he could stand for election in the next
    presidential election in 2008, when Putin must stand down
    and is seen by some commentators as the only politician
    who could lead a Ukraine-style democratic revolution in
    Russia.

    Interfax said Kasyanov was under investigation on
    charges of illegally obtaining property. The probe was
    initiated by Alexander Khinshtein, a journalist and deputy
    in the State Duma lower house of parliament.

    Khinshtein is a 30-year-old deputy from the
    Kremlin-backed United Russia party and a member of the
    lower house's anti-corruption committee.

    Since Kasyanov's return to the political scene, Russian
    media have speculated that he and some of his former aides
    could be investigated for alleged crimes committed during
    his time as finance minister in the freewheeling 1990s.

    Newspapers reported in May that Sergei Kolotukhin, a
    former deputy to Kasyanov, was being probed for wrong-doing
    in foreign debt negotiations. Analysts said the
    investigation was a blunt warning to Kasyanov that he
    return to private life.

    Kasyanov and Kolotukhin deny any wrong-doing.


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