The decision of the Spanish High Court not to permit the extradition of Mr Vladimir Gusinsky to Russia is a further embarrassment for President Putin's administration. The reasons stated by the Spanish court, that the fraud charges brought against the Russian media magnate would not constitute a crime under Spanish law, leave the Kremlin open to charges that the move to extradite was politically motivated.
Mr Gusinsky's case has been unusual even by the unpredictable standards of law enforcement which have prevailed in Russia in recent years. His company headquarters in central Moscow have been raided on a number of occasions. He has been arrested and held in the medieval squalor of the Butyrka prison in Moscow, parts of which date from the time of Ivan the Terrible. He was suddenly released and all charges against him were dropped. He then went to Spain , all charges against him were re-instated and the extradition process begun.
This treatment is interesting when compared with that of Mr Pavel Borodin, who brought Mr Putin to the Kremlin from the political obscurity of St Petersburg. Mr Borodin, arrested in New York in January and later extradited to Switzerland to face charges of money-laundering and membership of a criminal organisation, is now back in Moscow, his bail of $3 million paid, it would appear, from State funds.
Immediately after yesterday's Spanish decision the Russian Public Prosecutor's Office announced its intention of pursuing all channels remaining to secure Mr Gusinsky's extradition. This will mean further expenditure in what might be described as the opposite direction. Both men should be considered innocent until proved guilty and, therefore, one might have expected both to receive similar treatment. The major difference between them is that Mr Borodin has been a consistent supporter of Mr Putin, while Mr Gusinsky's Media-Most empire, composed of the TV station NTV a major Radio station and a number of print publications, has been the president's only significant opponent.
The natural gas giant Gazprom which has taken over Mr Gusinsky's controlling interest in the MediaMost group has taken drastic action in recent days. Russia has lost one of its best and most liberal daily newspapers following the closure of Segodnya. The country's leading news magazine Itogi, produced in conjunction with its US counterpart Newsweek, has had its editorial staff dismissed. NTV journalists and presenters have moved to another station, TV6, and have stated they intend to pursue independent policies from there. But TV6 is seen only in Moscow and St Petersburg and does not, therefore, have as strong an influence on public opinion as NTV did.
One can now expect the standard response from Russian politicians; that the Spanish decision, like the US move to arrest Mr Borodin, is part of an international conspiracy to weaken Russia in the eyes of the world.