VAVILOV DENIES GUILT.

Andrei Vavilov, the former government official at the center of Russia’s latest banking scandal, returned to Moscow from holiday yesterday to deny allegations leveled against him by the chairman of Russia’s Central Bank, Sergei Dubinin. Earlier in the week Dubinin accused Vavilov, who was First Deputy Finance Minister until May 15 of this year (and not March, as stated in yesterday’s Monitor), of authorizing payments that allowed the Unikombank commercial bank to misappropriate $500 million of state money. Vavilov told a press conference yesterday that he had done nothing wrong and would cooperate fully with the criminal investigation currently under way. Vavilov is now a senior executive in the Oneksimbank group headed by former first deputy premier Vladimir Potanin. Potanin is being described by some Moscow commentators as the real target of Dubinin’s charges. (ORT, July 15)

Russian, British Police to Join Forces Against Organized Crime.