Free Republic

Some of the former Yukos executives could be involved in the murder of Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko, Russia's top prosecutors said Wednesday. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Leonid Nevzlin, a core shareholder of the bankrupt oil company, who lives in Israel and is on the international wanted list on fraud charges, could have ordered Litvinenko's poisoning with polonium-210. "We are checking a version that people, who are on the international wanted list for grave crimes, including [former] Yukos co-chairman Leonid Nevzlin, could be behind these crimes," the office said, referring to Litvinenko's murder and an attempt on...

Leonid Nevzlin, a former Russian oil billionaire, yesterday dismissed allegations by Moscow that he ordered the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Mr Nevzlin said he had co-operated with British authorities investigating the murder of the dissident Russian ex-spy in London. The Russian prosecutor-general's office said on Wednesday that it suspected Israel-based Mr Nevzlin might be involved in the death of Mr Litvinenko, who died in a London hospital on November 23 from exposure to highly toxic polonium-210. Mr Nevzlin, who is visiting the US, fled to Israel in 2003 to continue managing the affairs of the Russian oil giant Yukos...

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors said on Wednesday that Leonid Nevzlin, a former top manager of the YUKOS business empire, could have ordered the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. "A version is being looked at that those who ordered these crimes could be the same people who are on an international wanted list for serious and very serious crimes, one of whom is ... Leonid Nevzlin," Russia's prosecutor-general's office said in a statement posted on its Web site www.genproc.gov.ru. [...] A trusted business partner of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin has provoked the Kremlin's...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department refused to comment on Russia's request to hand over Russian businessman Leonid Nevzlin, currently on international wanted list. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the department has never commented on extradition requests, adding that there is no bilateral agreement on extradition between the United States and Russia. Casey said he had no information on whether Nevzlin is still in the United States. On Tuesday, Russia asked the United States to hand over the former top Yukos manager, who has reportedly been in the Unites States for a week. On Wednesday, Nevzlin asked the U.S....

Irina Khakamada is running for president but her campaign headquarters are not bustling. Phones aren't ringing off the hook and no one is barking instructions. This is no Clinton-style war room, yet this lone warrior still looks battle-weary. She says she harbors no illusions of unseating President Vladimir Putin, but that's not the point. "We're fighting so that people raise their voices," she says, not fighting to win. "That costs less." But it's not clear just who is raising their voices in support. Speculation that she is a mercenary front for the Kremlin or oligarch interests has made it difficult...