A Russian official tried to bring back entrepreneurs who left the country to avoid prosecution. Here's what he had to say when one of them got a prison sentence anyway.
In early 2018, Russian Entrepreneurial Rights Envoy Boris Titov proposed a plan known as the “London list” to repatriate businesspeople who had left Russia because of looming criminal prosecution. On October 31, the first entrepreneur who moved back to Russia under the program, Andrey Kakovkin, was sentenced to three years in prison on fraud charges. Titov offered his first comments on the glitch in his plan a day later. He emphasized that Russia’s law enforcement agencies had only guaranteed that Kakovkin would not be held in jail to await his sentence. However, he said the sentence himself shocked him because he believes Kakovkin’s case would properly be classified as a civil dispute, not a crime. The ombudsman also reminded the Russian public that criminal cases against three other members of his London list have been closed, with one set of charges being converted to administrative violations and two others resulting in suspended sentences. However, Kakovkin’s case had previously been closed as well; it was subsequently reopened.
Cover photo: Vladimir Gerdo / ТАСС / Sipa / Vida Press