Category Nation/CIS
Source RIA Novosti

MOSCOW — A member of the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, the State Duma, made new accusations Monday against former premier Mikhail Kasyanov.

Alexander Khinshtein told a Moscow news conference that he had carried out his own investigation and found two properties linked with Kasyanov's name.

"One property registered in the name of Mikhail Kasyanov is a 4.7-hectare plot in the village of Usovo in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region," Khinshtein said.

According to Khinshtein, Kasyanov bought the land in a prestigious area of the Rublevsky highway from a firm, Landis, in July 2004 for 4.5 million rubles ($158,000).

"This means that the land plot was sold for about $33 per 0.01 hectare, compared with the actual price of $50,000 per hectare, or 1,500 times cheaper than the land's real market value," Khinshtein said. He added that the Landis general director was an employee of Millhouse Capital, the managing company of the Sibneft oil major (Russia's fifth largest oil company).

"This land plot was either a bribe given to Kasyanov for some favors or its value was deliberately understated to evade taxes," the deputy said.

Khinshtein also said that Kasyanov's wife paid $2 million for a 0.88 ha plot with a property in the village of Zhukovka in the same Odintsovo district. The deputy wanted to know where Kasyanov and his wife had found the money.

Khinshtein also told the news conference about the new areas of his investigation.

He said he was currently investigating money being concealed at the MiG Moscow aircraft making enterprise. Khinshtein said that $231 million for a MiG export contract was transferred by a Finance Ministry resolution signed by Kasyanov to a commercial firm and the contract was terminated.

"Mikhail Kasyanov was behind this deal," Khinshtein said.