Samara wins $300,000 on inflation damages from Berezovsky

A court near Moscow ruled on Friday that exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky must pay $300,000 to cover inflation losses in a massive car embezzlement case. The court thereby partly granted a lawsuit from the Samara Region authorities on the Volga River against the businessman, who fled Russia in 2000 and has been living in London under political asylum. Berezovsky, 65, was sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 in absentia and was ruled to repay $9 million for embezzlement of the state-run Aeroflot airlines. Other charges included a con when the businessman used his LogoVAZ car dealership to defraud the state-controlled AvtoVAZ car plant out of at least 2,000 cars to the amount of $13 million in 1994-95. Both LogoVAZ and AvtoVaz are based in the Samara Region. Berezovsky was also convicted of stealing 58 million rubles ($2 million) from LogoVAZ for the purpose. Russian authorities have been seeking Berezovsky's extradition from Britain, which has been a source of diplomatic tensions between the two countries.