LONDON, (Reuters) – A British court has issued an arrest warrant for a Russian mobile phone tycoon wanted in Moscow on charges of kidnapping and blackmail, a source connected to British law enforcement agencies told Reuters yesterday.
Russian prosecutors said they had received notification from Britain that a court in Westminster had issued an order for the arrest of Yevgeny Chichvarkin after Moscow asked for his extradition.
“It has been issued (the arrest warrant) but not executed,” the source in London said.
“We confirm that a Westminster court has issued an order to arrest Chichvarkin,” a spokeswoman for the Russian Prosecutor-General’s office said. She gave no further details.
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow declined comment while Chichvarkin did not answer repeated calls to his cell phone.
Chichvarkin helped found Euroset, one of Russia’s biggest mobile phone retailers, but sold his stake in the firm last year. He has accused corrupt officials of being behind the charges, which he denies.
Unmet extradition requests have been a sore point in Russia’s worsening relations with Britain in recent years.
Russia attacked Britain for hosting Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, while Russia’s refusal to extradite a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko led to diplomatic expulsions.
