Russian side has asked Austria to help get the evidence from Yelena Baturina, one of the principal figures in the investigation.
According to the Ministry of Domestic Affairs, despite declaring her interest in assisting the investigation, Ms Baturina has not yet appeared for examination. The investigators claim they are ready to ask Interpol for assistance, unless the spouse of the former Moscow Mayor turns up to give the evidence.
As Baturina's side informs, she has not been given or sent an official invitation. Ms Baturina maintains that she is ready to provide evidence in the embezzlement case. The suit claims that most of the City Government funding that went to the Bank of Moscow (13bln RUB, or 325mln EUR) had ended up in the coffers of Premier Estate Ltd, a real estate company thought to be connected with the company owned by Yelena Baturina.
Yelena Baturina currently sits at position 993 of the world's list of billionaires, and the only Russian woman to be worth $1bln. Baturina has a diverse portfolio, owning hotels in the Black Sea tourist resort of Sochi, over 72,000 hectares of agricultural land in the Belgorod Oblast, and also a factory that produces a million cans of sweetened condensed milk each year.
Source: RBC.ru, Wikipedia. Image courtesy: Prochitano.ru.
Author: Julia Shuvalova