U.K.-Russia Relations at Stake as EBRD Case Widens | Business | The Moscow Times
Russia and the U.K. risk souring ties further as authorities are set to clash over potential money-laundering and bribery charges against a former Russian official at a London-based international lender.
Yelena Kotova, 57, Russia's former top representative at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development , is sought by the U.K. for allegedly conducting a money-laundering operation in both Britain and the U.S. over several years, according to a person familiar with the British investigation, who declined to be identified because the probe is still under way. Kotova, who denies any wrongdoing, says she's unable to leave Russia because of a criminal inquiry by local authorities.
Relations worsened to a post-Cold War low after the 2006 assassination of dissident ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London . In the Kotova case, the U.K. refused entry to Russian detectives for more than a year. The Russian investigation may end up shielding Kotova rather than leading to a trial, said Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University.
"Kotova has some kind of protection, in part because she was appointed," Galeotti, who studies transnational crime and Russian foreign affairs, said in a phone interview. "The Russian government had a direct hand in getting her that job, which is why it's embarrassing. On the Russian side, I'm picking up a sense of tension. There are people who are carrying out a serious and diligent investigation and there are people who are instead thinking of the wider political context."
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