Yeltsins deny accepting $1m 'pocket
money'
By Ben Aris in Moscow
THE Kremlin strongly denied yesterday that President Yeltsin and his
daughters received $1 million dollars (£646,000) in bribes.
The statement followed allegations in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Bahgjet Pacolli, head of the Italian construction company Mabetex said in an
interview with the Italian daily that his firm gave Mr Yeltsin $1 million "pocket
money" to pay for personal expenses run up on a trip to Budapest, Hungary,
in 1994. Mabetex has won government construction contracts worth
hundreds of millions of dollars over the past six years, including fitting out the
President's residence in the Kremlin.
The Kremlin was first accused of corruption in March by Russia's general
prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, as part of politically motivated investigations into
corruption in the Kremlin's inner circles. Wednesday's allegations are the first
to name Mr Yeltsin. The Kremlin press office statement said yesterday: "The
president of the Russian Federation, his wife and his children, never opened
accounts in foreign banks." The newspaper did not claim that the president
and his family had opened foreign bank accounts.
Mr Pacolli alleged in the article that he paid credit card bills for Mr Yeltsin
and his two daughters, Tatyana Dyachenko and Yelena Okulova, as well as
the former Kremlin security chief Alexander Korzhakov. Other money was
allegedly paid through the accounts of the head of the Kremlin's household
affairs.
The newspaper, which claims to have copies of the credit card slips, wrote:
"The president doesn't seem to have abused Pacolli's cards. But his
daughters? Their accounts are the least stingy." It claims that Ms Dyachenko
spent thousands of pounds in a day. A spokesman for Mabetex also denied
the report. Mr Pacolli could not be reached for comment as he was "on
holiday".
Despite the best efforts by the Kremlin to kill the Mabetex story, it keeps
coming back.
Mr Skuratov's investigations are believed to have been ordered by the then
prime minister Yevgeny Primakov. After Mr Primakov was sacked in May,
the investigation was quietly dropped. The president also sacked Mr
Skuratov after he was shown in bed with two prostitutes on national
television.
But last month Swiss authorities froze the accounts of Pavel Borodin, the head
of Kremlin household affairs. His name is linked to the latest allegations, as
Mr Pacolli said the money was paid through his accounts.
telegraph.co.uk
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