#4 - JRL 7305
Argumenty i Fakty
August 27, 2003
THE ARREST: WHAT DOES THE KREMLIN WANT WITH GUSINSKY?
What has Vladimir Gusinsky done to annoy the Kremlin?
Author: Vyacheslav Kostikov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

VLADIMIR GUSINSKY'S BUSINESS INTERESTS THESE DAYS ARE RELATIVELY SMALL. HE NO LONGER HAS ANY MAJOR ASSETS IN MOSCOW. THERE ARE VARIOUS THEORIES ABOUT HIS ARREST IN GREECE: IT COULD BE DUE TO HIS OWN CARELESSNESS, OR THE KREMLIN'S RESPONSE TO GUSINSKY'S ACTIVITIES ABROAD, OR A MESSAGE TO OTHER OLIGARCHS.

Compared to the billions circulating among the oligarchs in Russia, Vladimir Gusinsky's business interests these days are relatively small. He no longer has any major assets in Moscow.

So what has he done to annoy the Kremlin enough to have our friends the Greeks arrest him in Athens and place him on the verge of deportation to Moscow?

FIRST THEORY

The Greek office of Interpol did not have documentation showing that the warrant for Gusinsky's arrest had been rescinded. Interpol headquarters in Lyons (France) rescinded the international warrant for his arrest back in July 2001.

But the key point is that the Russian Prosecutor General's Office still considers Gusinsky as charged with unlawfully taking a large sum of money out of the country (the figure of $250 million is quoted). Unfortunately for Gusinsky, the prosecutors of Greece and Russia have an agreement on reciprocal extradition of wanted criminals. Perhaps Gusinsky didn't know about that. Maybe his own carelessness let him down. Gusinsky travels the world in his own jet; passengers using private planes are permitted a simplified system of passport inspection at many airports.

SECOND THEORY

Gusinsky isn't as harmless as he seems. Although he's lost his television empire in Russia, he hasn't lost the taste for that industry. In the United States and Europe he has created MRT (International Russian Television), a Russian-language satellite network. It has a large and growing Russian-speaking audience, and constantly takes potshots at the Kremlin, in the spirit of the old NTV and TV-6. Moscow doesn't like that.

THIRD THEORY

This is linked to the YUKOS affair. The Kremlin is alarmed by the possibility that the assault on Mikhail Khodorkovsky could lead to significant capital flight from Russia - or perhaps even make some of the oligarchs flee abroad, fearing to meet the same fate as Platon Lebedev.

Gusinsky's arrest (especially if he can be returned to Moscow in handcuffs) is a message to the oligarchs: "If you don't abide by the rules of the game, we will track you down even if you go abroad. So you'd better sort out your affairs here."

(Translated by Sergei Kolosov)