BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/03/2008

KGB of Belarus detained Russian citizen in Minsk - Embassy of Russian Federation

According to Embassy of Russia in Minsk, agents of the State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB) detained a citizen of Russian Federation, Vladlena Funk (Bluzkova), who arrived to the Belarus capital city, accompanied by an American lawyer Emmanuel Zeltzer, online edition of the Moscow-based daily Vzglyad reports. The embassy confirmed the fact of detention of Vladlena Funk by the KGB. Press attache of the embassy of Russia in Belarus, Alexander Frolov, officially declared the fact today.

According to the embassy, Funk was put in an investigatory insulator of KGB. She has not addressed the Russian embassy for assistance as yet, according to Frolov.

A source in the Belarus law enforcement bodies informed that Zeltzer and Funk were detained in Minsk according to the request of the Russian law enforcement agencies, news agency Interfax says.

Earlier the employees of the American-Russian Law college headed by Zeltzer told the media that detention of the lawyer might be connected with his relationships with the Russian business circles. In particular, a case of late Russian businessman, a Zeltzer client, has been mentioned in the context of the detention. The fact of detention of the United States citizen has not been denied at the US embassy in Minsk, however it has refused any comments, having referred to the law on protection of private life.

Zeltzer, a former Soviet emigrant, is an expert in struggle against organized crime and money laundering in Russia and former Soviet republics, according to Interfax.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1513

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