The Russian owner of Portsmouth Football Club has been bailed after appearing in court in connection with a money laundering probe.

Vladimir Antonov, 36, and a Lithuanian partner, Raimondas Baranauskas, 53, were last night detained on an arrest warrant issued by investigators probing alleged fraud and money laundering at his banks in the Baltic states, said Lithuanian prosecutor Tomas Krusna.

They appeared at Westminster Magistrates court in London this afternoon and both were given conditional bail.

The Bank of Lithuania said on Thursday that Mr Antonov's bank there, Snoras Bank, will be liquidated, calling it the best solution for country's financial system and economy, which were jolted after the bank was nationalised and its operations halted.

Lithuanian regulators claim that hundreds of millions of euros were siphoned from Snoras, the country's fifth-largest financial institution, while Latvian authorities have said that similar asset-stripping took place on a massive scale at Latvija Krajbanka, a subsidiary bank controlled by Snoras.

Lithuanian bank chief Vitas Vasiliauskas said the government was liquidating the bank rather than waste taxpayers' money trying to help ''a plane that won't fly.''

The decision to liquidate Snoras means that Latvijas Krajbanka, which Snoras controls through a 68% stake, is almost certain to suffer the same fate given Latvia's meagre financial resources.