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Swede wanted in Ikea Russia fraud probe

Russian police said Monday they launched a probe into allegations of fraud and bribery by staff of Swedish retail giant Ikea in Moscow and were seeking to extradite Swedish and Turkish nationals.

Published: 20 December 2011 07:09 CET
Swede wanted in Ikea Russia fraud probe

Three employees including a 35-year-old Swedish executive are suspected of extorting a $225,000 bribe from a businessman, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

Two Turkish nationals acted as middlemen between the Swede and a businessman who wanted to rent space in Ikea’s Mega shopping centre in southern Moscow, said a spokesman for the ministry’s economic security branch, Andrei Pilipchuk.

In April, police detained one of the Turkish nationals in a Moscow coffee shop as he was receiving the bribe on telephoned instructions from the executive who was away on holiday in Sweden, Pilipchuk added.

The executive is still in Sweden and Russia is requesting extradition, the interior ministry spokesman said, adding that Ikea dismissed the suspect in May.

The detained Turkish man is currently in Moscow and has signed an order barring him from leaving the city, he said.

Ikea on Monday confirmed to AFP that several of its former employees are under investigation and said it was “completely cooperating with the investigators,” declining further comment.

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Published: 31 December 2022 09:35 CET
Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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