- Ex-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has called on Russia's
oligarchs to return their "plundered" wealth to their homeland.
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- In an interview to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, he
spoke of Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Footbal Club,
who has banked and invested millions of rubles abroad from the former state-owned
enterprises they bought cheaply 10 years ago.
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- "I do not want to undermine the motherland of soccer
and I don't have a problem with a Russian buying shares in Britain but
it is clear we should close the book on the period of plundering,"
Gorbachev said.
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- "Some think $1 trillion has been hidden away by
Russian businessmen. If they don't return that, our courts are likely to
decide they acquired it illegally. Then they couldn't use that money anywhere.
One day it will be used for the benefit of Russia."
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- The first and last president of the Soviet Union backed
the plan of Russian leader Vladimir Putin to offer Russia's oligarchs an
amnesty in return for the "repatriation" of their wealth. He
accepted the plan was "risky" but said the businessmen should
be reassured that they would not be heavily taxed in Russia.
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- Speaking of the nine-year sentence to former head of
Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Gorbachev said that "with
his talent for tax-dodging he would have been behind bars in America long
ago." Khodorkovsky was found guilty of major fraud and tax evasion
last week.
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