----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Guardian (UK) 21 February 2001 Pavel the just The Russian official held in America on corruption charges is being improbably recast as a martyr back in his home country By Amelia Gentleman As former presidential aide Pavel Borodin begins his second month of incarceration inside a New York jail awaiting extradition to Switzerland on money laundering charges, Russian efforts to secure his release have been renewed. Until now the "energetic measures" which Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov promised would be taken to secure his "immediate and unconditional release" have proved futile, and the once-powerful Kremlin insider remains behind bars - humiliatingly reduced from his past role as head of the Kremlin property department (responsible for some $600bn [$416bn] worth of assets), to a more modest position as inmate 55217-053 in a Brooklyn detention centre. The Duma's international affairs committee yesterday prepared a new appeal to the American state department, urging officials not to agree to the extradition request from the Swiss who intend to prosecute Mr Borodin for bribe-taking and laundering a sum of around $25m [#17m]. Pleading for clemency, the draft document stresses the national importance of Mr Borodin's current job as State Secretary of the Union of Belarus and Russia (a nebulous position granted by Vladimir Putin after Mr Borodin was dismissed from the Kremlin property department last year). The seniority of his post as coordinator of a future union between the two countries, meant his arrest and extradition had a serious impact on "Russia's state interests", the statement concludes. It seems unlikely that this appeal will succeed where personal appeals from Mr Putin to Mr Bush have failed. Bernard Bertossa, the Swiss prosecutor in charge of the case, insisted yesterday that the extradition process would not be abandoned. Mr Borodin was detained on January 18 at New York airport, after unwisely accepting an invitation to one of George Bush's inauguration celebrations in Washington - despite the existence of an international warrant for his arrest. The warrant was issued after a probe into alleged multi-million dollar kickback scams involving government officials who commissioned the Swiss construction firms, Mabetex and Mercata, to refurbish the Kremlin and other Russian public buildings in the last year's of Boris Yeltsin's presidency. As Mr Borodin gazes wistfully at the Statue of Liberty (just visible from his cell window), supporters in Moscow are working hard to generate support for his cause. It has not been an easy task to remodel the official as a suffering martyr in the eyes of a nation long-embittered by the extravagance of Yeltsin's circle. Jowly, smug and once fond of boasting about the wealth of the luxury dachas, limousines, jets and Tsarist palaces in his gift for the favoured elite, Mr Borodin is a most unlikely popular hero. But fuelled by nationalist anger at the snub perceived in America's decision to implement the arrest warrant of a serving Russian official, Mr Borodin's supporters have worked hard to reclaim him as the wronged victim of international hostility to Russia. Their efforts have met with a receptive audience. "We might not approve of him, but the American's decision to arrest him is deeply insulting to our country. It's a sign of how weak Russia has become in the eyes of the world," a retired soldier from Vladivostok commented. Even those Moscow newspapers most critical of Mr Borodin in the past have begun to question whether the case against him will stand up. Citing documents procured from the Swiss prosecutors, Novaya Gazeta claimed this week that the Swiss had no proof that Mr Borodin had received any of the laundered funds. The most surreal manifestation of the rebranding campaign came last week when an exhibition of children's drawings opened in Moscow, dedicated to the plight of "Our Pavel". Organised - with a healthy sense of the absurd - by activists from the extreme nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, most of the teachers and school children who took part were participating in good faith. Crayoned pictures of a despondent Mr Borodin, weeping because fellow prisoners had stolen his food, were on display alongside felt tip depictions of Mr Yeltsin, mourning the loss of his friend. Some children had composed poems lamenting the arrest, others prepared a care parcel containing vodka and Russian bread to boost the official's spirits. _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
