RSPP not ready to vouch for detainee Kamenshchik, as it did for Yevtushenkov - Shokhin
MOSCOW. Feb 19 (Interfax) - The Russian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) is not ready to make bail for Moscow Domededovo Airport board chairman Dmitry Kamenshchik, who was detained by police on Thursday, as it did for AFK Sistema chief Vladimir Yevtushenkov, but believes law enforcement bodies should use the least harsh measure of incarceration for Kamenshchik.
"In the case with say Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the RSPP may have guaranteed that he would cooperate with the investigation, therefore the incarceration measure say could be house arrest with a pledge not to flee, but here we do not have those grounds, since Kamenshchik and Domodedovo are not RSPP members, he is not involved in its work. We cannot vouch for him," RSPP chief Alexander Shokhin told Interfax.
"Firstly, the charge itself is not economic. Secondly, it is more difficult for us to provide any bail on a personal level," he said.
But Shokhin said it was wrong to arrest suspects "by default."
"All in all, we believe that our law enforcement bodies have sufficient technologies to prevent a suspect from disappearing. House arrest with a bracelet and so on. All of that is in the arsenal. Therefore it is unclear why every time there is not just a high-profile affair, but any major affair, there is an argument that the suspect might put pressure on investigators, might flee, might go abroad. There ought to be a few examples of testing the effectiveness of other technologies," Shokhin said. The matter of the terror attack at Domodedovo does not involve deliberate illegal activity, but ineffective supervision of airport security. "In that regard, naturally, the question arises as to how justified the harsh incarceration measures are," he said.
However, the main question is whether there are any grounds for the charges. It is too early for now to gauge the effect of the Kamenshchik case on Russia's investment climate.
"If this were an economic crime, it could be discussed in investment-climate terms. Considering that this concerns decisions that could lead to a possible terror attack: that's a completely different story and commenting in terms of the investment climate is only possible if the evidence is insufficient," he said.
