The wife of the former Mayor of Moscow, businesswoman Elena Baturina, who is a witness a fraud case involving the Bank of Moscow, said she would testify and is ready to go to Russia as soon as she receives an official invitation for questioning.
"Nobody has sent a formal invitation to me so far. As soon as I get one, I will immediately come," said Baturina on Saturday in an interview with a Russian TV channel, she also said, "I would be happy to come as a witness. I am more interested in resolving this whole story than anyone esle because it is completely false. It's in my best interest to end all criminal cases."
During the interview, Baturina acknowledged that at one time she had to give bribes.
"I gave bribes but I did not take bribes. Everything else was above board," she said.
Baturina also commented on the opposition protests in Moscow in December 2011, saying that she would have joined the meetings, assuming Yury Luzhkov, her husband "was not mayor at the time."
Luzhkov, who led the capital for 18 years, was prematurely dismissed from his post as mayor of Moscow in September 2010 by presidential decree in connection with a loss of confidence by President Dmitry Medvedev.
At the end of 2010, former president of the Bank of Moscow Andrey Borodin and his former first deputy Dmitry Akulinin were prosecuted for fraud. According to investigators, the Bank of Moscow allocated large sums of money to be used by Baturina's company to buy 58 acres of land close to Moscow.
