MOSCOW, August 28 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – The Moscow City Court has extended until December 5 and 6 the house arrests of Yevgeny Olkhovik, a co-owner of top Russian group of companies Renova, and Boris Vaynzikher, CEO of Renova’s subsidiary, T Plus Company, who stand charged with giving about one billion rubles (about $16.5 million) in bribes to officials of Russia’s Republic of Komi, the Court’s press service told RAPSI on Monday.

The court has thus satisfied the motion investigators had filed earlier to extend for a month the house arrests of the defendants. The ruling also permits both Olkhovik and Vaynzikher to make telephone calls to their lawyers and go on daily hour-long walks near their places of residence.

On August 1, the court released the defendants from detention and placed them under house arrest.

Earlier, a criminal case was opened against some former and acting managers of Kompleksnye Energeticheskiye Sistemy (KES) company, of which T Plus is the legal successor, over alleged corruption. At that time, the offices of the company’s parent holding Renova were also raided.

Three men holding CEO posts in the KES at different time, Olkhovik, Vaynzikher and Mikhail Slobodin are involved in the case. Vaynzikher and Olkhovik were initially put detention. Slobodin, ex-head of the telecommunications giant VimpelCom, has been arrested in absentia. In late July, Russia’s prosecutors turned to Interpol asking it to issue a Red Notice for Slobodin.

According to investigation, between 2007 and 2014, the defendants bribed officials currently involved in the case against ex-head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer. Earlier, investigators claimed that Olkhovik and Vaynzikher had allegedly received 177 and 89 million rubles (about $4.5 million in total) in bribes respectively during their management in the Kompleksnye Energeticheskiye Sistemy and transferred the money to the accounts of affiliated companies.