A Vienna court late on April 30 rejected a U.S. Department of Justice request to extradite Dmytro Firtash, a Russia-linked Ukrainian oligarch and former partner of Gazprom in the multibillion-dollar regional natural gas trade.
The ruling is a major victory for Firtash, who in the witness box
described bribery charges related to an Indian titanium venture that never
materialized as “absolutely untrue”. His defence team accused the U.S. of waging
a geopolitically-motivated witch-hunt linked to the continuing standoff over
Ukraine.
