A former senior aide to president Yeltsin, who fled to Poland to escape corruption charges, says the authorities there have granted him political asylum.

The former Presidential advisor, Sergei Stankevich, left Russia in 1995 after an investigation was launched following charges that he'd accepted a bribe from the promoters of a concert while he was Moscow's deputy mayor.

He's always maintained he was a victim of Kremlin intrigues.

The BBC Warsaw correspondent says Moscow has been annoyed by Poland's refusal to extradite Mr Stankevich; and he says it is perhaps with these diplomatic sensitivities in mind that the Polish government is refusing to comment on Mr Stankevich's current status.