Russian Media Mogul, Vladimir Gusinsky, Arrested

Gusinsky, the owner of Media-Most, a company whose holdings include Russia’s only private nationwide television network, is wanted in his home country on fraud charges.

He was arrested shortly after midnight Monday in the Spanish town of San Roque. Authorities told the Associated Press Gusinsky would be taken today to Madrid to appear before the National Court, which handles extradition cases

The 48-year-old media mogul has been on a self-imposed exile since a warrant for his arrest was issued in November.

A lawyer for Gusinsky said earlier this month the businessman would declare himself a victim of political repression if authorities attempted to return him to Russia.

Russian prosecutors allege Gusinsky misrepresented the assets of his company when he accepted loans of more than $300 million guaranteed by Russia’s natural gas monopoly, Gazprom. They say his companies were legally bankrupt at the time.

A settlement reached last week by the two companies stripped Gusinsky of his controlling stake in independent TV network NTV. Media-Most holds 49.5 percent of NTV’s shares, but that includes 19 percent pledged to Gazprom as collateral on loans coming due next year. The gas company holds 46 percent of NTV’s shares. If Gazprom were to collect on its debts, the network would fall under government control.

The two groups have pledged to work together to find a foreign buyer to keep Gazprom from taking control of the network next year, but so far no investors have surfaced.

Gusinsky says the Kremlin is using the debt dispute as an excuse to punish him for his media outlets’ harsh criticism of the Russian government.

The media mogul has been battling the Kremlin for several months now, having been jailed for four days in June on embezzlement charges. Less than a month later, Russian authorities raided Media-Most’s offices, seizing financial and personnel files.

In the early 1990s, Gusinsky had used his ties to the Russian government to make millions in privatization deals. But after he fell out of favor with the Kremlin last year, his media outlets have run exposes on alleged government corruption.

Dmitry Ostalsky, a spokesman for the company, told Russia’s Interfax news agency Gusinsky should not be extradited.

“There will be no extradition because of the political aspect of the charges by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office against Gusinsky is obvious,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he supports media freedom and is not involved in the Media-Most debt investigations.