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Kiwi link to Putin's banker
New Zealand trusts associated with a former Russian billionaire once known as "Putin's banker" are now subject to a worldwide freezing order by a London court. Sergei Pugachev was the co-founder of Russia's Mezhprombank that once had billions of dollars of assets under its control. He claimed in a recent Financial Times interview that he was personally behind President Vladimir Putin's rise to power. But he appears to have fallen out of favour and, says Pugachev, the Russian Government has seized his business empire. In November 2010 a Moscow court declared Mezhprombank insolvent and Russian authorities later ... (full story)