President Bush entertains criminals wanted by Interpol

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Source: Haaretz

Published: February 3, 2005 Author: Yossi Melman

 

U.S. President George Bush on Thursday hosted two Israeli-Russian businessmen who are wanted by Moscow over alleged tax offenses.

 

The two are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, stock holders in the giant Russian oil enterprise Yukos. The two currently reside in Israel, along with a business partner Leonid Nevzelin, in Herzliya. They were invited to a White House breakfast as guests of Congressmen Tom Lantos and Christopher Cox.

 

Following a Russian request for their extradition, the two are wanted by the Interpol.

 

Brudno, Dubov and Nevzelin claim that their arrest warrants were issued at the order of the Russian president as part of a campaign of political intimidation against reformists. According to the three, former Yukos chairman Mikhail Khodorkovski, who has been sitting in a Moscow jail for the past 16 months, was arrested for the same reason.

 

Yukos and its major stockholders have supported centrist, democratic Russian political parties, and donated large sums of money. In recent years, Russian authorities began investigating the company, its managers and major stockholders, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The probes caused several of the managers to flee to Israel, and resulted in Khodorkovski?s arrest and a Kremlin attack on Yukos. One of Yukos? largest divisions was recently sold.