Sergei Guriev leaves after being questioned by state investigators amid clampdown on groups critical of Vladimir Putin
A prominent economist and government adviser has fled Russia after being questioned by state investigators, amid a growing clampdown on groups and individuals critical or independent of President Vladimir Putin.
Sergei Guriev, an English-speaking economist well known to western investors, had been questioned as a witness in an investigation into the defunct Yukos oil company, whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed in 2005 for fraud.
His real transgression, supporters and commentators say, was to support Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who led protests against Putin's return to the presidency which the Kremlin has been trying gradually to snuff out.
"He (Guriev) defended Khodorkovsky and said that the case was fabricated. An enemy? Of course," Boris Nemtsov, a protest and opposition leader, said ironically. "He fights corruption? That betrays our fundamental ideals!"
Since Putin's return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister, the authorities have moved across a broad front to silence critics, with Navalny now on trial on fraud charges which he says are trumped up and politically motivated.
Non-governmental organisations such as rights groups, independent vote monitors and opinion pollsters that receive foreign funding have been told to register as "foreign agents", a term with overtones of the cold war and treason.
Guriev, the 41-year-old rector of Moscow's New Economic School, has advised the Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, served on the board of state bank Sberbank and is a leading commentator in the local and international press.
The flight of the liberal economist, a former visiting professor at the US University of Princeton, was confirmed when Sberbank issued a statement saying he had declined to seek re-election to its board.
Sources familiar with the situation said he left Moscow in early May to join his family and was now in France. He had tendered his resignation as head of the NES, a post he has held since 2004, but his resignation has not yet been accepted.
Guriev said his decision was personal, that he was "on vacation" and that he would not comment further.
"This is a very bad signal, definitely," said Sergei Aleksashenko, another leading Moscow economist.
"He was the economist who was most affiliated to the government. The signal I read is that Medvedev is not willing, or able, to defend his supporters."
Erik Berglof, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said Guriev – a personal friend – had made a huge contribution to the policy debate in Russia as a speechwriter for Medvedev and an advocate of economic reform.
The Kremlin denies cracking down on opponents or using the judiciary for political ends. Putin has laughed off accusations that he is tightening the screws on opponents.
"If he wants to leave, let him leave. If he wants to return, let him return. It's his personal affair," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.