
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994                   TAG: 9401200162
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION CLEARS EX-VICE PRESIDENT

Alexander Rutskoi, Russia's former vice president, was cleared of all corruption charges after documents used to demonstrate his guilt were found to be fakes, a city prosecutor said Wednesday.

He said an investigation has begun to determine the source of the allegations, which were made this past summer by an anti-corruption commission appointed by President Boris Yeltsin.

Rutskoi, who opposed Yeltsin and joined with hard-liners in blocking his reforms, remains in prison on charges he incited the October riots after the president disbanded the old Soviet-era parliament. More than 140 people died.

The anti-corruption commission said Rutskoi had a suspicious Swiss bank account in which large sums of money had been deposited; and it released documents purportedly proving Rutskoi's ties to Trade Links Ltd., a Swiss company.

But prosecutor Valery Konin said those documents were an "elementary fake."

"We have determined that Rutskoi has nothing to do with the firm and we have instituted criminal proceedings to find out who was responsible for slandering him," Konin said.

He said the prosecutor's office cleared Rutskoi of all corruption charges Monday. - Associated Press

by CNB