Russia's mobile phones supremo is sacked

Missing City AM founder Leonid Rozhetskin's rival Leonid Reiman has been sacked as Russia's Communications Minister.

Reiman, who effectively controlled Russia's multi-billion pound mobile phone market, worked with former Russian President Putin in the early 1990s and emerged from obscurity to become minister in 1999.

Before London-based Rozhetskin went missing from his bloodstained Latvian holiday home in March, he was involved in a series of court battles with Reiman over his shareholding in mobile phones giant MegaFon.

Would-be Arsenal owner and Uzbekistan-born billionaire Alisher Usmanov was this week reported to have acquired a 39.3% stake in MegaFon - 8% of it from a Bermuda-based firm that a Swiss arbitration ruled was controlled by Reiman.

Usmanov's purchase - and Rozhetskin's disappearance - has ended legal battles between Reiman and Rozhetskin over MegaFon.

Rozhetskin had also filed a lawsuit in New York accusing Reiman of threatening him, money laundering and seeking to manipulate Russian legislation to get control of MegaFon.

Last Friday, the court rejected the case after Rozhetskin's lawyers said an unnamed person with power of attorney had ordered them to resolve it.