Russia waits for extradition of Baumgertner

A court in Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Uralkali CEO in efforts to speed up his extradition.

Like Belarus, Russia charges Vladislav Baumgertner of abuse of power. His lawyers are going to appeal against the arrest ruling, Kommersant reports.

The situation of Uralkali CEO looks more and more like a detective story. Both Russia and Belarus seem to do their best to spread as little information about the case and the detainee as possible. Even the story of his arrest in absentia by Moscow's Basmanny district court, which would seem to be simple, is shrouded in mystery. Both the Russian Investigative Committee and lawyers of Uralkali head keep silence.

It turned out that a motion by investigators on placing Vladislav Baumgertner under arrest in absentia was heard by the Basmanny district court on October 17, but the information went public only recently. Explaining the reasons for the arrest, an investigator noted that Uralkali CEO was charged with a serious offence carrying a punishment of more than three years in prison and he could continue his criminal activity and use his position to apply pressure on witnesses if he remained at liberty. Another ground for the arrest is that Vladislav Baumgertner was on the international wanted list, the investigator says.

The court agreed with the arguments and ruled to detain Baumgertner for two months in absentia. The restriction will take force after Baumgertner is handed over to the Russian law-enforcement bodies. There's no precise information about the date when it may happen. According to an official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, “the Russian investigative bodies plan to prepare documents on Baumgertner's extradition in the near future”. One can only guess how official Minsk will react to the request. Anyway, Lukashenka said on October 21 that Vladislav Baumgertner could be extradited to Russia after compensating for the damage of $100 million.

We remind that both Russia and Belarus charge Baumgertner and first deputy general director of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) Konstantin Solodovnikov of abuse of power (part 2 of article 201 of the Criminal Code of Russia). Investigators think, they abused their powers when performing managerial functions in commercial companies using them against the legal interests of the companies in pursuit of making a profit or for the benefit of other persons. Their actions caused significant damage to and grave consequences for BPC and Belaruskali.

A lawyer of Baumgertner said the decision of the Basmanny district court would be appealed against, but declined to give further comments.

Photo: ria.ru