Corrupt Russian officials going to the West

Yesterday, Maria Zakharova, director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, touched on the big interest of Western colleagues and the media in the topic of corruption in the Russian Federation: “Russia takes part in relevant specialized international structures on combating corruption. This topic is one of the priority ones for the Russian government, for Russian citizens. But we consider to be absolutely biased the attempts, which are often very strange, made by our Western partners, in terms of drawing attention to this issue and this problem in the Russian Federation,” Zakharova stated.

Going back to the recent BBC film about corruption in Russia, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “It is an interesting topic. If the United Kingdom, and especially media in the UK, has such an increased interest in the topic of corruption, if you have said A, you must also say B. If you look at how and what is going on with corruption in our country, please do not forget that these corrupted figures for some reason always go to the West, precisely in the direction of London.”

According to Zakharova, this month, British colleagues decided to shelter in the United Kingdom individuals who are wanted, and are accused of committing crimes of varying severity on the territory of Russia. Several decisions on refusal of extradition of Russian citizens were taken by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Great Britain, Theresa May. “I think this may very well become the story for a new film of BBC investigations. Why are those people, who are accused of economic crimes, fraud, including on a large-scale, why do they become citizens of Great Britain, and why are such high-ranking officials as the Minister of Internal Affairs personally patronizing them?” Zakharova wonders.

She states that this is not an isolated case: “The British refused to extradite to Russia more than 40 people with similar cases. It was either a direct decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs, or usually they were put through the exact same judicial authority, precisely the Westminster District Court of London. At the same time, the British side does not bother to make detailed and compelling legal justifications for such refusals, as we understand, we have become accustomed to it. It is only limited to formulaic references to the fact that these people, who hide themselves in Britain, have a special immigration status de jure. In addition, we are told that their extradition to the Russian side may lead to human rights violations. That is, those who are in Russia are corrupted figures. And those corrupted figures who come to the UK, they are under the protection of human rights principles. It's such a unique logic.”

Every one of the Russian requests of the law enforcement bodies, along with detailed explanations of criminal charges, has to state that the requests for extradition of citizens do not have the purpose of prosecution of anyone for political reasons or because of race, religion or nationality. “It is simply prohibited by Russian law. At the same time, London prefers to ignore expert reports, including British experts. And written guarantees of respect of all the rights of those accused by the Russian side are ignored, including those that are provided by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as the relevant UN and Council of Europe Conventions and the protocols to them.”

Individuals, whom the United Kingdom de facto shelter on its territory, and, of course, does it under originally false pretenses, they are accused by Russia of committing such criminal offenses as fraud on a large scale, misappropriation of property, embezzlement in large and very large amounts, robbery, brigandage, and even murder.

The damage from their activities, from their crimes, to Russia, the Russian side, and private companies, amounts to tens and hundreds of millions. I don’t mention health and welfare of common Russian citizens,” Zakharova said.