VILNIUS, October 5 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Vodo) - Lithuania has granted provisional asylum to banker Igor Babenko, charged by Russian Interior Ministry bodies with embezzlement, his Lithuanian attorney said Wednesday.
The attorney said Babenko, the former manager of a Menatep St. Petersburg bank affiliate, was being prosecuted only because he had headed an affiliate of the bank connected with imprisoned tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's inner circle.
In June, a Russian court issued an arrest warrant for Babenko, a Lithuanian native, and his associates and put them on an international wanted list.
Babenko was detained in Vilnius July 1. He pleaded innocent.
An executive from the bank Babenko had been working for said the issue is not political, but a case of "criminal activity."
Lithuania decided to extradite Babenko to Russia, but later suspended the decision.
