THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A prominent Russian banker claims he has received political asylum in Britain after claiming he was being subjected to a campaign of persecution led by former President Dmitry Medvedev.
Andrei Borodin, 45, the former president and co-owner of the Bank of Moscow who is wanted in Russia for alleged fraud, told the Vedomosti daily that he had been granted asylum by UK authorities in the last few days.
The news drew a sharp condemnation of the British government from Mr Medvedev's spokesman.
If true, the asylum decision is likely to cause fresh tension in the already fraught UK-Russia relationship. The Kremlin was furious when Britain gave asylum to fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.
"My lawyers put in an application for political asylum to the UK Home Office indicating that the pursuit of me and my colleagues in Russia is politically motivated," Mr Borodin told the newspaper.
"Behind it are politicians including the former president, Dmitry Medvedev, who is the chief initiator of all this persecution and victimisation. We said that all the criminal cases against me in Russia are nothing but a weapon of that illegal, politically motivated persecution, and the British government decided to give me asylum." Mr Medvedev served for one term as president from 2008 to 2012 before handing back the Kremlin to his ally, Vladimir Putin. He is now prime minister. » | Tom Parfitt, Moscow | Friday, March 01, 2013
