Given what goes on in Russia, an embezzlement probe does not surprise.
On the other hand, that it is happening to an opposition candidate is typical of the political system put in place by President Putin.
Russia is not the place to hear good news for democracy and good governance.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Russian prosecutors have called in Mikhail Kasyanov, an opposition candidate in next year’s presidential elections, for questioning as part of an investigation into a 1990s embezzlement case.
Tatyana Razbash, an aide to the former prime minister, said prosecutors had summoned Mr Kasyanov to appear for questioning on February 26 and she expected he would return from a business trip in time to attend. Mr Kasyanov was out of the country yesterday and was unavailable for comment.
The move appeared to be a Kremlin tactic to apply pressure amid a clampdown on the opposition ahead of presidential elections in 2008, analysts said.
Mr Kasyanov faced investigation in 2006 for suspected fraud and abuse of office over allegations he had illegally acquired a dacha near Moscow just before leaving office. Mr Kasyanov, who moved into opposition a year after his dismissal from the post of prime minister in 2004, was not indicted in the case. But it won much greater play in the state-controlled media than any of his public attacks on the Kremlin’s rollback of democracy.
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