Greek court bails Russian tycoon
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Gusinsky says the charges against him are politically motivated.
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ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- A Greek appeals court has freed former Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky on bail, but told him he must stay in the country while he fights an extradition request to Russia on fraud charges.
The court set bail on Friday at 100,000 euros ($108,000) and barred him from leaving the country.
Gusinsky is accused of defrauding the Russian government by overstating the assets of his Media-Most holding company to win $262 million in loan guarantees from Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom.
There has been no formal extradition request from Moscow yet, and no indication from Greece that it will hand Gusinsky over to Russian authorities.
Foreign Ministry sources said U.S. officials have intervened on Gusinsky's behalf to oppose extradition, and a flurry of talks among Greek, Russian and U.S. officials took place last weekend.
Gusinsky, who holds dual Russian-Israeli citizenship, fled Russia in 2000 and has been living mostly in Israel and the United States. He was arrested July 21 on an international warrant after arriving in Athens from Tel Aviv.
His lawyers have called the arrest warrant invalid and part of a "politically motivated plot" against their client.
The 50-year-old lost control of NTV in a hostile takeover he has said was organized by the Kremlin. The network, founded in 1993, came under heavy fire for its criticism of former Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, particularly of the war against separatists in Chechnya.
Gazprom grabbed controlling interest in the network in 2001 and installed new management in what critics called an attack on Russia's independent press.
Gusinsky went to Israel in April 2001 after a successful year-long court fight against extradition from Spain, where he had been arrested on the fraud charges. The Spanish court said Russia's grounds for the case would not have amounted to a crime in Spain.
