The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has affirmed that the three EBRD employees named in a Jan. 19 article by Russia’s RBK-Daily are not connected “in any way” to ongoing criminal investigations by British and Russian authorities.
The three Moscow-based officials identified by the Russian newspaper include Natalia Khanjenkova, EBRD’s managing director for Russia; Alexander Orlov, director for government relations in Russia; and George Orlov, director for financial institutions in Russia.
“The EBRD has vigorously raised the issue of how the names of three Bank employees with no links whatever to the case appeared in the said article with the editorial management of the newspaper,” the bank said in a Feb. 7 statement.
EBRD said only one of the four persons linked to the scandal has so far been disclosed, and that all four were “assigned to the EBRD by the Russian government, and not Bank staff.”
As reported by Devex last month, EBRD waived the four officials’ immunity, including Yelena Kotova, Russia’s representative on the bank’s board, to facilitate the corruption probes.
>> Thomas Mirow: Corruption Still Endemic in EBRD’s Area of Operations
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