By Israel News Agency Staff

Jerusalem ----- July 5, 2008 ....... The British newspaper Mail On Sunday has reported that Russia billionaire Oleg Deripaska may have wanted to use England Labour MK Andrew MacKinlay, who appears to be in contact with Russia spies, in a High Court decision against Michael Cherney, who is suing Deripaska for £1.5billion.

The Mail reported that: "Andrew MacKinlay, a Labour member of the powerful Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, was carpeted by Government Chief Whip Geoff Hoon after the England intelligence services reported that he had tea with the agent at the House of Commons."

The man, Alexander Polyakov, works as a counsellor at the Russia Embassy in London but is thought to report back to the SVR - the infamous agency once known as the KGB.

The Mail said that in a classic spy - thriller fashion, British agents followed Polyakov as he headed to the England Parliament in London for his rendezvous. After alarmed MI5 chiefs contacted Downing Street, Hoon summoned Mr MacKinlay to warn him that he was being targeted by a Russian spy and that it "would not look good if it came out".

Undeterred, MacKinlay continued to meet Russia spy Polyakov at locations around London and put down a series of parliamentary questions on Russian matters.

In the two months from July last year, when the Commons meeting took place, the MP placed six questions about Russia. In one, he asked Home Secretary Jacqui Smith why Britain had granted political asylum to Boris Berezovsky (the exiled enemy of Russian PM Vladimir Putin), who had been close to Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko, assassinated in London by poison in 2006.

His other questions concerned the number of accredited Russian diplomats, extradition provisions between the two countries and the circumstances surrounding last summer's deportation of a Russian suspected of plotting to murder Mr Berezovsky.

'We have never discussed Russian emigres or businessmen, just international affairs. It's part of my job,' said MacKinlay, currently on a week-long parliamentary visit to Kazakhstan.

'Hoon said to me, "In my previous job (Defense Secretary) I met people... you should realize you are being targeted by a Russian spy," adding that it wouldn't look good if it was publicized.'

Asked by the Mail if he thought Polyakov was a spy, MacKinlay said: 'Not any more than any other foreign diplomat is.'

However, a senior British Government source told The Mail on Sunday that Polyakov was believed to be one of the more senior Russian agents in the UK. 'We were doing MacKinlay a favor by warning him,' the source said.

The 'tea at the Commons' came at a sensitive time for Anglo - Russia relations - it was the height of Britain's anger and dispute with Moscow over Andrei Lugovoi, prime suspect in the murder of Litvinenko, which led to the expulsion of four Russian diplomats that same July.

Was Oleg Deripaska planning an assasination on Cherney rather than paying on signed contracts?
Why is Deripaska fearful of a court hearing in London?

One of Russia's richest men: Oleg Deripaska is said to have wanted to use Andrew MacKinlay in a High Court battle. His partner, Polina, is close with Chelsea FC's owner Roman Abramovich's partner, Daria Zhukova (far left)

The Mail also reported that in a further, bizarre twist it has been claimed that MacKinlay was targeted by aides of a Russia oligarch as a 'stooge' for use in a High Court battle. According to a report in the Bulgarian newspaper Standart, pro-Kremlin advisers to Russia's richest man, Oleg Deripaska, are said to have wanted to deploy him against Michael Cherney (Mikhail Chernoy), who is suing Deripaska for £1.5billion.

The report claimed aides to Oleg Deripaska, who is worth £14billion, drafted a propaganda campaign two months before the 'tea', which included 'mobilising' MacKinlay to help to block Michael Cherney (Mikhail Chernoy) - worth £2billion - from settling in the UK.

MacKinlay says that around this time he received an email purporting to be from the human rights group Amnesty in relation to Michael Cherney; the organization has no record of sending this.

'It seemed a bit odd at the time - not the sort of thing they would do,' said MacKinlay.

Deripaska - not named in the email affair - is close to fellow billionaire and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, and Deripaska's wife, Polina, is close to Roman's partner, Daria Zhukova.

A spokesman for Deripaska said: 'The allegations this story contains belong in the pages of fiction, so it would be ridiculous to dignify them with a comment.'

The Mail beleives there is no suggestion that the alleged smear plan is linked to his cloak-and-dagger meetings - but MacKinlay thinks MI5 have made that connection.

'I'm bloody terrified to be honest,' he added. 'It's the sort of thing you read about but don't expect to happen.'

Recently, Israel Right-wing activist Avigdor Askin was arrested along with two private detectives, Rafi Pridan and Aviv Mor, from Tel Aviv, on suspicion that they had illegally listened in on the conversations and hacked computers of Russia -Israel businessman Michael Cherney's associates.

The complaint against the three was filed by Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said the alleged wiretapping was aimed at harming him.

Israel Police's International Crimes Unit arrested the men on suspicion of illegal wiretapping, conspiring to commit a crime and violating the Privacy Law.
A source close to Askin told the Israel newspaper Ynet that Avigdor Askin has been helping to organize the campaign calling for the release of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir.

Israel Police believe that Oleg Deripaska employed the private detectives against Cherney.

Michael Cherney won the right on Thursday to sue Russia's richest man for $4 billion (2 billion pounds) in court, after a judge ruled he might be assassinated or held on trumped-up charges if he tried to bring the case in Russia.

The ruling, in which the judge cast doubt on the integrity of the Russia legal system, could further strain relations between Moscow and London, which have been at a post-Cold War low.

Israeli citizen and human rights activist Russian entrepreneur Michael Cherney accuses his former business partner Oleg Deripaska of failing to honor a business deal worth billions.

Deripaska, an aluminium baron and one of Russia's most powerful oligarchs, denies the allegations and says the case should be heard in Russia.

High Court Judge Christopher Clarke accepted Cherney's argument that his life and freedom would be at risk in Russia, and a trial there might not be fair.

 

"I am persuaded that the risks inherent in a trial in Russia - assassination, arrest on trumped-up charges and lack of a fair trial - are sufficient to make England the forum in which the case can most suitably be tried in the interests of both parties and the ends of justice," the judge ruled.

 

"I am persuaded that the risks inherent in a trial in Russia - assassination, arrest on trumped-up charges and lack of a fair trial - are sufficient to make England the forum in which the case can most suitably be tried in the interests of both parties and the ends of justice," the judge ruled.

There was "a significant risk" that Cherney, 56, would not obtain a trial in Russia "unaffected by improper interference by state actors and that substantial justice may not be done".

Prior to 2001, Michael Cherney was engaged in charity work in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Bulgaria, and the US. He made valuable contributions into Jewish philanthropy in Russia. Following the Dolphinarium terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, the Cherney Fund became the helping hand for all its victims.

The Cherney Fund renders help mostly to the new arrivals, victims of catastrophes and terrorist acts that continue to bleed Israel, as well as to the low-income victims of terror in other countries. Another equally important task assumed by the Cherney Foundation is the media effort in the war against terrorism.

Shortly after the Dolphinarium attack, the Foundation published a book called Dolphinarium: Terror Targets the Young.

Related story:
Reuters: British Court allows Cherney lawsuit against Deripaska

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