Mosnews is reporting that an aide to former Prime Minister and potential Presidential candidate Mikhail Kasyanov has left the country following questioning over his involvement in a fraud case involving Kasyanov:
Konstantin Merzlikin, deputy to the former prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, has reportedly left Russia after being questioned by prosecutors earlier this week as a witness in the case of his boss who stands accused of using a front company to purchase of a prime piece of federally-owned land for a fraction of its worth.
Merzlikin was summoned for questioning on Wednesday. A source close to Merzlikin had told Interfax that “he expected to be summoned to the prosecutor’s office and planned to use his constitutional right to refuse to testify, due to what he calls the deliberate politicization of the case.”
It’s not clear from the report whether Merzlikin has actually fled the country to avoid the possibility of being arrested, or whether he is just on holiday and the press have decided to talk up the story.
If Merzlikin has fled the country, this doesn’t bode well for any potential Kasyanov campaign, as it could easily be construed as an admission of guilt by the Kremlin and the Russian press. On the other hand, if Kasyanov is anywhere near as good at playing the martyr card as Mikhail Khodorkovsky or Viktor Yushchenko, then maybe it bodes well, after all…
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