MOSCOW (AP) - Financier George Soros' charitable foundation is trading accusations of foul play with a little-known Russian company in a bitter real estate dispute that could threaten the organization's extensive programs.
The president of Soros' Open Society Institute in Russia, Yekaterina Geniyeva, said Wednesday that the foundation's landlord locked her and 10 other people inside their office Monday evening until 3 a.m. the next morning. The landlord said Geniyeva and her colleagues locked themselves in as a public relations ploy and that foundation representatives had threatened him with bodily harm.
It was the latest and most public chapter in a long-running fight over a piece of prime real estate in the center of Moscow.
The Open Society Institute signed a lease in 1999 with an option to buy the building from a company called Sector-1, which later sold the property to Noble Technologies. The current fight centers on a clause in a version of the lease that Geniyeva says is a forgery.
The disputed clause stipulates that the lease runs out Aug. 1, 2001 if the property is not purchased. Citing that clause, Noble Technologies says the old agreement is no longer valid and has increased the purchase price from dlrs 1.4 million to dlrs 7 million.
Geniyeva contends the lease was signed for 10 years.
Noble Technologies director Kantemir Karamzin said the institute has been illegally using the property since August.
"It's a fantasy that these documents were forged," Karamzin said. He said institute representatives threatened him and offered bribes to officials to decide the dispute in their favor.
The institute took its forgery allegations to court, and the next hearing is scheduled Monday.
Geniyeva concedes the institute stopped paying rent "at some point" during the dispute, but resumed payments once legal proceedings began.
Geniyeva accused Karamzin of paying a utility worker to cut off water to the office Saturday, but Karamzin said it was cut off because he told officials he could not pay the bill because the institute owed him money.
Then Monday, Karamzin locked the parking lot gate in what he said was an attempt to draw media attention to the dispute.
He said institute employees used a backdoor to access the office all day, but then locked it themselves to portray themselves as victims.
After journalists arrived, Karamzin opened the gate. Water has also been restored, and Geniyeva said the office was working normally.
Geniyeva warned the fight sent a bad message about Russia to potential investors and philanthropists.
"We are going to fight for this building for the sake of principle," she said.
Karamzin expressed disappointment at what he called the institute's hypocrisy. "It seems they've learned too well how to do business the Russian way," he said.
The Open Society Institute, which runs education, Internet, public health and media projects, has funneled about dlrs 1 billion into Russia over the past 15 years.