The Russian media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky suffered a major setback yesterday in his long-running battle with Russian prosecutors when a Moscow appeal court overruled a verdict that embezzlement charges against him were illegal.
Supporters of the prominent Kremlin critic immediately denounced the decision as "absurd" and warned they were drafting a further appeal to Russia's Supreme Court and to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
Mr Alexander Gorbunov, head of the serious crimes department at the general prosecutor's office, hailed the Moscow city court ruling, telling reporters: "We can assert that in this case the law has triumphed."
Gusinsky (48), whose Media-MOST empire is the biggest independent media group in Russia, is currently under house arrest in Spain awaiting a Madrid decision on whether to extradite him to Russia.
Gusinsky is accused of embezzling more than $300 million from the Gazprom natural gas monopoly, which is Media-MOST's largest shareholder and creditor.
His supporters argue the case against him is politically motivated.
Media-MOST immediately denounced yesterday's ruling as an "absurd decision" and said it would take its appeal to Russia's Supreme Court.
"Unfortunately, we had already predicted the outcome. It was clear the authorities exerted pressure on the Moscow court," a Media-MOST spokeswoman, Ms Yelena Bruny, said.
Gusinsky has been hounded by Russian investigators after his newspaper, radio and television holdings took a critical view of President Putin's military campaign in the rebel republic of Chechnya.
He was briefly jailed over the summer on fraud charges that were quickly dropped after his arrest sparked worldwide condemnation about the state of press freedom in Russia.