Charges against Russian tycoon dropped

Gusinsky: Strongly critical of the government

The criminal case against the Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky has been dropped for lack of evidence, his lawyer said on Thursday.

The Russian prosecutor's office said it had unfrozen the assets of Mr Gusinsky, who heads the Media-Most group, including Russia's only national independent television network.

Mr Gusinsky had earlier been accused of defrauding the Russian Government of $10m in a privatisation deal.

His lawyer Pavel Astakhov, quoted by the Russian Itar-Tass news agency, said investigators had dropped all criminal proceedings against Mr Gusinsky.

Travel ban lifted

The media magnate flew to Spain to join his family late on Wednesday after a travel ban on him was lifted, Mr Astakhov said.

Mr Gusinsky's spokesman, Dmitry Ostalsky, said criminal investigations into the privatisation of a St Petersburg television station would continue.

Russian police raided Media-Most in May

That probe formed the basis of the charges against Mr Gusinsky.

But Mr Gusinsky himself is no longer accused in the case, the spokesman said.

Mr Gusinsky, a fierce critic of the Russian Government, denied the charges and refused to co-operate with the investigation.

He said the case against him was aimed at stifling press freedom and any criticism of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Mr Gusinsky's jailing was widely condemned and sparked concern that Mr Putin, a former KGB spy, was intent on stifling freedom of speech.

The authorities denied that the charges were politically motivated.

The Media-Most holding includes the NTV television station, Moscow Echo radio and the Sevodnya daily newspaper.

Crackdown on 'oligarchs'

Mr Gusinsky is among the group of leading businessmen known as "oligarchs", who have been targeted by law enforcement bodies recently.

Prosecutors visited Media-Most on 11 July and ordered company officials to hand over a large number of financial documents.

Armed tax police had already raided the company in May.

Berezovsky: Accused of money-laundering

President Putin has said he wants to cut Russia's "oligarchs" down to size.

Under Mr Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, controlling stakes in many of Russia's largest companies were sold under controversial shares-for-loans schemes.

The sell-offs enabled several industrialists to build up lucrative empires.

The Swiss authorities have handed over documents to a Russian special investigator who is looking into the business activities of Mr Gusinsky's media rival, Boris Berezovsky.

It is alleged that he was involved in a scam by which money was siphoned off from the Russian state airline, Aeroflot, and funnelled through two Swiss companies.

Mr Berezovsky has protested his innocence. Last week he resigned his seat in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in protest at what he described as President Putin's growing authoritarianism.

Yeltsin's re-election

Mr Berezovsky and Mr Gusinsky joined forces in 1996 to back Boris Yeltsin's campaign for re-election as Russian President.

The tycoons' generous funding and media influence meant that Mr Yeltsin was indebted to the oligarchs.

Mr Putin, unlike Mr Yeltsin, did not run an official election campaign before becoming president in March.

But the media gave a great deal of coverage to his activities as acting President, which was more than sufficient to sweep him to power.