Tensions are rising in the long-running and increasingly complex battle over the dramatic nationalisation of Russian bank Promsvyazbank.
Readers of our story in August may remember that brothers Dmitri and Alexei Ananyev had fled Russia after the bank, which they founded and previously owned, fell into administration and was taken over by the country’s central bank in 2017 (though not before some rather unusual transactions in its shares). Alexei moved to the UK, while Dmitri went to Cyprus.
Russian authorities put out a warrant for their arrest and charged them with embezzlement of around $1.6bn. A lawyer for Alexei said the charges and warrant for his arrest were “absolutely groundless”. Dmitri maintains he is the victim of a politically motivated nationalisation and he did nothing wrong. According to the brothers, Interpol’s General Secretariat says the accusations against Dmitri and Alexei have a political dimension to them and they are no longer subject…