Police have no claims against EBRD Chief Economist Guriev - source
MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - The law enforcement authorities have no questions to ask former New Economic School (NES) Rector, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Chief Economist Sergei Guriev, who will come to Moscow on November 11 to present an EBRD macroeconomic report, a source with knowledge of the situation told Interfax.
"Russian police have no claims against Guriev and do not plan to conduct any investigative proceedings with his participation," the source said.
"Investigative agencies are not mandated to announce via the media any procedural or investigative actions pending in relation to a criminal inquiry," the Russian Investigative Committee told Interfax, responding to a question as to whether it was planned to question Guriev during his stay in the Russian capital.
The EBRD has announced the upcoming visit of its Chief Economist Guriev to Moscow. A bank representative confirmed to Interfax earlier that EBRD Chief Economist Sergei Guriev would come to Moscow on November 11 for a working visit to present the EBRD annual macroeconomic report and to speak at a number of field-specific conferences.
Former NES Rector Guriev left Russia in 2013 for fear of prosecution in the so-called 'case of experts', specialists in the field of law and economics who appraised the sentence passed in the second Yukos case at the request of the Kremlin Human Rights Council.
Guriev was appointed EBRD Chief Economist a year ago and took the position in summer 2016. Prior to that, he was a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said time and again that Guriev had nothing to fear in Russia. "He is a smart person, a very good specialist, this is true, which is why he has found a job, which seems to be a good one," Putin said at a meeting with Presidential Human Rights Council members on October 1, 2015, in his remarks on reasons for the economist's departure.