A US-Russian not-for profit public policy
research and advisory organization dedicated to promoting legal reform in Russia and newly
independent countries of the former USSR, based upon democratic principles, market economy
and rule of law
News and features
are released and updated by: PRESS CLUB
Compiled, translated and codified by the staff of American Russian Law Institute:
Emanuel E. Zeltser, Esq., Anna Reid, LL.M., LL.D., and Alexander
Fishkin, LL.D. , together with the Academy of Jurisprudence of the Ministry of
Justice of Russia, and professors of the Law School of the University of Pittsburgh
REUTERS 16:16
01-27-00
Swiss order the arrest of Yeltsin ex-aide
By Elif Kaban
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities investigating a Russian
money-laundering affair have issued an international arrest warrant for former top Kremlin
official Pavel Borodin, a Swiss magistrate said on Thursday.
The arrest warrant for Borodin, who was a key aide to Boris Yeltsin before the former
Russian president resigned last month unexpectedly, has already been sent to the Interpol
police network, the magistrate told Reuters, declining to be named.
The bold and diplomatically unusual Swiss move is the first of its kind against a serving
Russian politician and an unprecedented accusation aimed at an official who was at the
heart of the Kremlin.
The charges are part of an investigation by Geneva's judicial authorities into alleged
kickbacks paid to Russian government officials by Swiss-based construction firm Mabetex.
The Kremlin and Mabetex have denied any wrongdoing in the affair, in which a number of
Swiss accounts have been frozen.
BORODIN NOT INFORMED DIRECTLY
In Moscow, Borodin's spokeswoman said the Kremlin's ex-property chief had had no word from
Switzerland about the arrest warrant and knew about it only from media reports.
Borodin was later quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "It's a provocation
connected with the formation of the union between Russia and Belarus."
The Swiss magistrate told Reuters that international arrest warrants were likely to be
issued for two more suspects soon.
The arrest warrant is the first to be issued in the Swiss investigation into the
multi-million-dollar web of Russian financial dealings and alleged corruption.
It underscores investigators' suspicions that Switzerland may have played a central role
in capital flight and potentially high-level corruption and embezzlement in Russia.
The Swiss move could have political implications for Russsia as well as the United States,
where the suspected diversion of massive Western aid to Moscow has been a key issue in the
presidential primaries ahead of November elections.
The Swiss magistrate said Geneva's chief prosecutor Bernard Bertossa issued the warrant
recently for Borodin, who presided over the presidency's vast property empire of hotels,
resorts, dachas and real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"I can confirm that the chief prosecutor, Bertossa, has issued an international
arrest warrant for Borodin," said the magistrate. "The warrant is for
money-laundering."
Swiss federal police sources said that once such a warrant is issued, the suspect could
not travel to the West without running the risk of being arrested and extradited to
Switzerland.
BORODIN DEMOTED BY PUTIN
Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin ousted Borodin from the Kremlin administration in
a reshuffle earlier this month.
Putin demoted Borodin to a figurehead position in the Russian government as state
secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union that Moscow established with the former Soviet
republic.
Swiss prosecutors have accused him of taking bribes from the Swiss company Mabetex in
return for giving the firm lucrative contracts to renovate government buildings including
the Kremlin, charges Borodin has previously denied.
Separately, Swiss authorities are also investigating Swiss connections in an alleged
money-laundering scandal involving the Bank of New York. They are assisting U.S.
investigators in the affair, in which two people have already been indicted in the United
States.
Russia's Borodin says warrant
"provocation"
MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Pavel Borodin, the
Kremlin's former property chief, was quoted on Thursday as saying reports that Swiss
authorities had issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with a bribery probe were a
"provocation."
"It's a provocation connected with the formation of the union between Russia and
Belarus," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Borodin as saying.
Earlier Borodin's spokeswoman said the new state secretary of a union merging Russia and
its ex-Soviet neighbour had learnt about the arrest warrant from media reports and had not
been informed about it by the Swiss authorities.
A Swiss investigating magistrate told Reuters in Davos the international warrant had been
issued a few days ago.
"He has received nothing, he did not know anything about this order, nothing about
this business, and no one had hinted at anything," Borodin's spokeswoman said.
"He is feeling fine and is working on documents concerning the union," she told
Reuters.
Borodin's former position as head of the influential Kremlin department charged with
looking after the presidency's vast real-estate holdings has been at the centre of
allegations that a Swiss building firm bribed top officials to obtain contracts.
Borodin has denied any wrongdoing, saying he feels insulted by the allegations made in the
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mabetex had given money to former President
Boris Yeltsin, his family and officials.
Mabetex has also denied any wrongdoing.
The Swiss investigating magistrate, who declined to be named, said international arrest
warrants against two more suspects were likely to be issued in the coming days in the
widening affair.
