Britain’s relations with Russia faced another downturn last week following fresh reports that the missing billionaire oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev had fled to the United Kingdom. Gutseriyev — the former head of Russneft, a Russian private oil firm — disappeared in August shortly before a Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest.
On Wednesday, a report in the Tvoy Den newspaper claimed that the businessman applied for political asylum in the UK after entering the country earlier this month.
It claimed Gutseriyev had lodged documents with the UK Home Office and British officials had informed their Russian counterparts. However, both British and Russian officials said they had no information to suggest he was in the UK.
If confirmed, Gutseriyev’s asylum application is likely to exacerbate the dismal relations with Moscow. Vladimir Putin has denounced Britain as a haven for ”criminals and terrorists” after the refusal to send back the oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
If Gutseriyev has applied for asylum, his lawyers are likely to argue that he has no possibility of a fair trial in Russia. They will also point to the death of his son. Chingiskhan Gutseriyev (21) died in a mysterious car crash in Moscow days after his father fled.
Gutseriyev’s woes appear to have started after he bought up assets from the bankrupt oil firm Yukos. In July he accused Putin’s government of using regulation to grab back oil and gas assets. He wrote: ”They made me an offer to leave on ‘good terms’. I refused. Then, to make me more amenable, they tightened the screws on the company.” — Â