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Russia tycoon says to prove innocence in Britain
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-04 21:14

Russia tycoon says to prove innocence in Britain
Undated file photo of Yevgeny Chichvarkin. [Agencies]
Russia tycoon says to prove innocence in Britain

MOSCOW: A Russian mobile phone tycoon wanted in Moscow on charges of kidnapping and blackmail said on Friday he would prove his innocence in a British court after it issued a warrant for his arrest.

The warrant for Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who Russia has asked to be extradited, would mark the first British arrest among dozens of high-profile men from the ex-Soviet Union who reside in Britain, much to Russia's annoyance.

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It could also herald a significant shift in the two countries' frosty relations.

"I am absolutely innocent and I will be proving it to the British court," Chichvarkin told Reuters by telephone from London.

He declined to comment on the motivation behind his arrest warrant, saying: "My lawyers do not recommend (that)."

Several tycoons are wanted by Moscow but Britain, one of its top investors, has so far refused to give them up.

Moscow has attacked London for hosting tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, while Russia's refusal to extradite a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko led to diplomatic expulsions.

The British-Russian relationship is stained by several major irritants, from spying allegations to oil and gas spats.

Russian prosecutors on Thursday underlined that Britain, though issuing the arrest warrant, has not agreed to extradite Chichvarkin.

Chichvarkin expanded his Euroset mobile phone retail chain from two to 5,000 stores in less than a decade, making it one of Russia's biggest mobile phone retailers.

He has accused corrupt officials of being behind the charges he faces. In an interview with Business FM radio station earlier this week, Chichvarkin said he had lost everything in Russia: "I have no possibility (in Russia) to start a business because there simply aren't any possibilities".

"... When it becomes a free country, where it will be possible to create things, then (I'll go back) with pleasure".

In 2008, he sold his 50 percent stake in the company, whose bright yellow stores pepper high streeets across Russia, and moved to London with his family.