The Jerusalem Post, Internet Edition, January 25th, 2001:
Police arrest Goussinsky's partner
By Margot Dudkevitch and News Agencies
MOSCOW (January 25) - Russian police yesterday arrested
Mikhail Mirilashvili, a business partner of jailed media mogul
Vladimir Goussinsky and head of the St. Petersburg chapter of the
Russian Jewish Congress, on kidnapping and corruption charges.
He caused slight alarm earlier when he tried to arrange a flight to
Israel on President Moshe Katsav's plane. Mirilashvili, who
reportedly has Israeli citizenship, had requested to join the
president's delegation on his return flight.
Mirilashvili hoped to meet Katsav during a cocktail party conference
with leaders of Russian Jewish groups in Moscow yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the president said Mirilashvili had indirectly
approached Brig.-Gen. Shimon Hefetz, Katsav's military adviser, who
was responsible for compiling the list of members in the delegation
that accompanied the president on his current trip, and had requested
to return on the plane to Israel. His request was denied.
Delegation members said they'd heard reports there had been attempts
to smuggle Mirilashvili onto the plane when it left Russia.
The arrest drew widespread coverage in Russian news media in part
because Mirilashvili is an associate of Goussinsky, who has been
charged with fraud in a dispute over control of Russia's largest
private media company.
Goussinsky is president of the Russian Jewish Congress, one of the
two main national Jewish organizations in Russia, while Mirilashvili
is director of the St. Petersburg chapter.
Mirilashvili was also president of Russian Video, a St. Petersburg
business affiliated with Goussinsky's media company and the target of
a separate investigation by prosecutors, according to the Interfax
news agency.
But prosecutors said the kidnapping case had nothing to do with
Mirilashvili's relationship to Goussinsky. Mirilashvili also owned
casinos and other businesses in St. Petersburg, and had been involved
in backing political campaigns, NTV television news reported.
The Russian Jewish Congress would not immediately comment on the
arrest.
Agents of Russia's Federal Security Service, which investigates
organized crime and terrorism, detained Mirilashvili on Tuesday
evening at his apartment in St. Petersburg, said prosecutor Ivan
Sydoruk.
He said Mirilashvili was charged with kidnapping two people, and said
the arrest was not linked to any legal actions against
Goussinsky.
Sydoruk would not identify the two victims, but said "the case may be
related to the kidnapping of Mirilashvili's father last year." He
declined to elaborate.
Mirilashvili's attorney, Yury Novolotsky, said his client had nothing
to do with any kidnappings.
Goussinsky was briefly arrested last summer in a case alleging theft
of state property at Russian Video. After his release, he left
Russia.
Goussinsky has said that case and the current charges against him are
politically motivated as retaliation for critical coverage of Russian
President Vladimir Putin in his media outlets. He is under house
arrest in Spain, fighting an extradition request from Russia.
He is now charged with fraud in receiving loan guarantees from
Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom in 1996.
