Spain Arrests Russian Mogul
Acting on a warrant from Moscow, Spanish police arrested Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky on Tuesday, jailing him ahead of a hearing on whether to extradite him to face fraud charges.
Gusinsky — one of the so-called "oligarchs" who used ties to the Kremlin to amass quick fortunes in privatization deals in the 1990s — was arrested shortly after midnight Monday at a villa he owns in the beach community of San Roque in southern Cadiz province, a National Police official said.
Russian prosecutors accuse Gusinsky of misrepresenting assets in Media-Most when he accepted loans of more than $300 million guaranteed by Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom. They say Gusinsky's companies were legally bankrupt at the time.
Gusinsky has said the allegations against him are a Kremlin attempt to punish him for criticism of the government in his media outlets.
In Moscow, a spokesman for Gusinsky's Media-Most company called the fraud charges purely political and said Spain should reject the extradition request.
"I really hope that the Spanish judicial system will — understand that it is an absolutely political prosecution and will not extradite Mr. Gusinsky and will not become an instrument of political pressure against a person," said the spokesman, Dmitry Ostalsky.
After his arrest, Gusinsky was to flown to Madrid, where he appeared Tuesday evening before investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon, who became famous for his effort to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet stand trial in Spain for human abuses committed in Chile.
He told the judge he opposed extradition, insisting he was a victim of persecution, a state prosecutor present at the questioning, Enrique Molina, told reporters.
After an hour of questioning, Garzon ordered Gusinsky jailed preventatively in Soto del Real prison on Madrid's outskirts, a court aide said.
The court has 40 days to examine Russia's request for his extradition and approve or reject it, although the Spanish government has final say in the matter.
The media mogul was indicted in Russia on Nov. 13 on charges of fraud. The international arrest warrant was issued last week after he failed to turn up for questioning.
Media-Most came under pressure from Gazprom for repayment of several hundred million dollars in debt resulting from loan guarantees Gazprom gave the company. Media-Most settled the matter by giving stock to Gazprom to cover the debt, but says it preserved its news media organizations' independence.
Media-Most accuses the Kremlin of using the debt dispute and the investigation against Gusinsky to crank up pressure on NTV.
After Gusinsky fell out with the Kremlin last year, his news outlets including the flagship NTV — the only one of Russia's three major television networks that is not controlled by the government — have run exposes on official corruption and incompetence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that he support media freedom and has nothing to do with the Media-Most debt negotiations or the investigations.
Putin says he views a free press as a vital element of post-Soviet society, but has criticized some journalists for acting "against the state." He has also pledged to deal firmly with the oligarchs, and in one instance said he was prepared to use a "cudgel" against them.
Gusinsky was unexpectedly jailed for four days earlier this year when he showed up for questioning in a privatization fraud case. The charges, which he called politically motivated, were later dropped.