An Austrian court approved on Tuesday the extradition of Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash to the United States in a bribery case, overturning an earlier ruling that had said the U.S. request was politically motivated, Reuters reports.

CEETV reminds that Firtash is the co-owner of one of the country’s largest commercial nets Inter. He is also a former supporter of Ukraine's ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and together with his business partner Levochkin and Ukraina’s owner Rinat Akhmetov is financially supporting the so-called Opposition Block, the part which replaced Yanukovych’s pro-Russian Party of Regions.

Speaking before Tuesday's verdict, Firtash's lawyer Dieter Boehmdorfer reiterated the accusation that the United States was motivated in the case by political interests.
"We must not allow Austria to become a stooge for the political world power the USA," Boehmdorfer told the court, depicting Firtash as the victim of a U.S. strategy to minimize Russian influence in Ukraine.

A U.S. grand jury indicted Firtash in 2013, along with a member of India's parliament and four others, on suspicion of bribing Indian government officials to gain access to minerals used to make titanium-based products.

Austrian judge Levnaic-Iwanski said the U.S. charges against Firtash were entirely of a criminal nature and not related to politics. He added that the businessman, who was in the courtroom, would get a fair trial in the United States.

Firtash is also wanted for financial crimes in Spain and was arrested as he left the courthouse. Magistrates in Barcelona charged him with money laundering and engaging in organized crime, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. It wasn’t immediately clear what impact that case would have on the U.S. extradition bid.

CEETV reminds that In February 2013 K.H. Media Limited owned by former SBU chief Valery Khoroshkovsky anounced that it has sold its 100% stake at Inter Media Group Limited, estimated at some 2.5 billion USD to GDF Media Limited, owned by Firtash.

In 2015, following the conflict in Eastern Ukraine under the threat of losing its license, Inter announced that Firtash and his business partner Sergey Levockin bought the 29% stake of Russian Pervy channel in Inter. Now 100% of the company is owned by companies of the two businessmen.

“Firtash has long been closely tied to Putin and his circle and he knows a lot that the people around Putin wouldn’t like to see public,” Stanislav Belkovsky, a Moscow political analyst, told Bloomberg. “Naturally, the extradition of Firtash and his subsequent testimony in America don’t make these people happy. The risks for Putin’s elite are rising.”