BANGKOK: From Dubai to Sweden and now Russia: It’s been a busy travel week for Thailand’s fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

As thousands of his rural supporters camp out in Bangkok, pressing the government to call fresh elections, the 60-year-old tycoon is trotting the globe in search of business ventures - and rallying Red Shirt protesters from afar by video link. “I am on a business trip in Russia,” Thaksin told supporters last night, adding that he was meeting a businessman “who is sitting on a big pile of cash. He is interested in investing in Asia. So when I return to Thailand, I could bring him along with me.” His remarks were carried by several Thai newspapers today.

Thaksin was removed from office by a 2006 coup and fled the country two years later ahead of a conviction on a conflict of interest charge.

While Thaksin continues to stir up the demonstrators, he is apparently no longer welcome to do so from his longtime base of Dubai, Thai officials said. “We are told that Dubai will not let him conduct political activities there,” said Chavanont Intarakomalyasut, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, adding that Thaksin has not been kicked out of the United Arab Emirates. “To stay there - to live there - is another story.” Thailand has revoked his passport and wants him extradited to serve his two-year jail term arising from his 2008 conviction. Britain, Germany and other countries have barred Thaksin, but there are no shortage of others willing to accept his investment offers and hand over new passports, including Nicaragua and Montenegro, where he visited earlier this month.