MOSCOW, February 15 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling to extend the detention of Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin, also known as Alexander Belov, who stands accused of laundering money allegedly embezzled from BTA Bank, for six months, RAPSI learnt in the court on Monday.

Potkin (Belov) will stay in jail until June 21.

Belov was arrested on October 15, 2014 at the Hotel Intourist Kolomenskoe in Moscow on charges related to the embezzlement of $5 billion from BTA Bank. At the time of the arrest, Belov allegedly had documents on him that effectively tied him to the embezzlement.

The court initially placed Belov under house arrest, but later sent him to a pretrial detention center after an extremism case was opened against him.

Investigators believe that Belov (Potkin) was a mastermind in a money laundering operation in 2012-2014. He was also suspected of involvement in laundering money that was embezzled from BTA Bank by its former chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Ablyazov, who allegedly defrauded BTA Bank of more than $6 billion, left Kazakhstan for the UK, where he was granted political asylum in 2011. However, he remained a fugitive from justice since February 2012.

His whereabouts remained unknown until he was detained on July 31 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine are all seeking his extradition.

In October 2015, French authorities approved the extradition to Russia of Kazakh tycoon Ablyazov.