MOSCOW, July 25 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – Russia’s prosecutors had turned to Interpol asking it to issue a Red Notice for Mikhail Slobodin, former head of the telecommunications giant VimpelCom, who stands charged of bribing officials in the Republic of Komi, press service for the Prosecutor General's Office told RAPSI on Tuesday.

As it has been reported earlier, Slobodin was put on the Russian federal wanted list, whereas in September 2016 a court in the town of Syktyvkar arrested him in absentia.

Defendants in the case are Slobodin, Chief Managing Director at Renova Group holding Evgeny Olkhovik and CEO of T Plus Company, a subsidiary of Renova Group holding, Boris Vainzikher.

Investigative authorities in Russia’s Republic of Komi have initiated a criminal case against some former and acting managers of Kompleksnye Energeticheskiye Sistemy (KES) company, of which T Plus is the legal successor, on suspicion of large-scale bribery.

Investigators believe that between 2007 and 2014 the defendants bribed the officials currently involved in the criminal case against the Republic’s ex-head Vyacheslav Gaizer with money and other assets, with the total amount of funds transferred as money reward making over 800 million rubles ($13.5 million at the current exchange rate).

Investigators claim that Olkhovik and Vainzikher have received 177 and 89 million rubles (around $3 million and $1.5 million) in bribes respectively during their management in the Kompleksnye Energeticheskiye Sistemy from 2007 to 2014 and transferred the money to the accounts of affiliated companies.

Olkhovik and Vainzikher have been put in detention upon court order.