Britain Did Not Give Russian Businesman To Kremlin

A court in London has ruled that the former Yukos vice-president and a close friend of Khodorkovsky Aleksander Temerko cannot be extradited to Russia.

Russian prosecutors had accused Temerko of defrauding a state oil company.

But the British judge concluded that Russian authorities wanted to punish him for his political opinions.

Mr Temerko will now be allowed to stay in Britain, pending a possible appeal by the Russian authorities.

Mr Temerko became vice-president of Yukos in 2003, after the arrest of Mr Khodorkovsky, who is now serving a prison sentence in Siberia.

Mr Temerko says he believes the motivation of the assault on Yukos was President Vladimir Putin's desire to silence those who challenged him politically.