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Renova co-owner arrested for 2 months, ex-VimpelCom CEO put on wanted list

Former head of the Russian unit of the global telecommucation company Mikhail Slobodin is a suspect in a major bribery case

Mikhail Slobodin Boris Kavashkin/ITAR-TASS

Mikhail Slobodin

© Boris Kavashkin/ITAR-TASS

SYKTYVKAR, September 7. /TASS/. The city court of Syktyvkar, the capital of the Russian Komi Republic, on Wednesday issued a warrant to arrest Yevgeny Olkhovik, co-owner of the Renova Group, for two months and placed Mikhail Slobodin, the former head of the Russian unit of the global telecommucation company, VimpelCom Ltd., on a federal wanted list.

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Olkhovik and the head of the T Plus company, Boris Vainzikher, were detained in connection with suspicious payments of more than 800 million rubles ($12.3 million) to former top officials in the Komi Republic between 2007 and 2014.

Slobodin, who is also a suspect in this bribery case, is currently residing abroad. On September 5, VimpelCom Ltd. said it had accepted the resignation of Slobodin, who had worked for the company since 2013.

Last year, 15 high-ranking officials from the Komi Republic, including its governor, Vyacheslav Gaizer, were charged with organizing a criminal network and committing fraud, and were subsequently arrested by a Moscow court.

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