Tycoon on the run

The Russian state dramatically escalated its campaign against oil tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev on Tuesday when a Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest. The embattled businessman has gone missing and is believed to have fled the country. As Passport noted last month, Gutseriyev had stepped down as head of Russneft, Russia’s seventh largest oil ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
599675_070830_russneft_05.jpg
599675_070830_russneft_05.jpg

The Russian state dramatically escalated its campaign against oil tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev on Tuesday when a Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest. The embattled businessman has gone missing and is believed to have fled the country. As Passport noted last month, Gutseriyev had stepped down as head of Russneft, Russia's seventh largest oil company after being charged with tax evasion and "illegal entrepreneurship." At the time, he accused authorities of launching a politically motivated campaign against him in order to place Russneft under control of a massive state-owned holding company. Russia's Kommersant newspaper is reporting that Gutseriyev has fled to London, according to "unofficial information," but he has also been sighted recently in Azerbaijan. Sources close to the businessman say they have no idea where he is.

The Russian state dramatically escalated its campaign against oil tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev on Tuesday when a Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest. The embattled businessman has gone missing and is believed to have fled the country. As Passport noted last month, Gutseriyev had stepped down as head of Russneft, Russia’s seventh largest oil company after being charged with tax evasion and “illegal entrepreneurship.” At the time, he accused authorities of launching a politically motivated campaign against him in order to place Russneft under control of a massive state-owned holding company. Russia’s Kommersant newspaper is reporting that Gutseriyev has fled to London, according to “unofficial information,” but he has also been sighted recently in Azerbaijan. Sources close to the businessman say they have no idea where he is.

In another strange twist, Gutseriyev’s 22-year old son Chingiskhan (yup, that’s his real name) was killed last week in a car crash under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Kommersant has reported that police have no record of a crash involving him. No ambulances were called and no hospitals treated him. Gutseriyev has not been seen since Chingiskhan’s funeral in North Ossetia on Aug. 22. 

Wherever Gutseriyev is, Russia may find it difficult to get foreign governments to cooperate with extradition. A Swiss Court ruled last week that the prosecution of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkosky was politically motivated and ordered Swiss authorities not to participate in further investigations against him. Khodorkovsky is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence on similar charges. If indeed Gutseriyev has made it to London, home of exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky and a number of other Putin-era dissidents, his presence could further inflame already strained British-Russian relations. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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