Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup and campaigning against his political opponents from abroad since, staged a meeting with seven Thai opposition leaders in Moscow, Kommersant reported.
Thaksin discussed a new street protest in Bangkok that took place Sunday, a Thai lawmaker told the local Bangkok Post newspaper, the report said.
Two-month clashes between the authorities and Thaksin supporters in Thailand’s capital left 91 dead and more than 2,000 injured this summer.
Russian authorities refused to comment on the visit of Thaksin, who has traveled to Moscow in the past and is said to be friends with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. But a Foreign Ministry source told Kommersant that Moscow might be supporting Thaksin in order to secure the release of accused arms dealer Viktor Bout and to obtain state contracts from Bangkok.
(MT)
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