MOSCOW, September 5./TASS/. VimpelCom Ltd holding has accepted the resignation of Mikhail Slobodin, heading the company’s Russian office. Kjell Morten Johnsen will take over his position, the company said in a report.

It said the resignation came after news about Slobodin being a defendant in the case of large-scale bribes to the former leadership of the Komi republic.

Earlier on Monday, the head of the T Plus company, Boris Vainzikher, and co-owner of the company Renova, Yevgeny Olkhovik, were detained on suspicion of giving a multi-million bribe to the firmer leadership of the Komi Republic. The whereabouts of Slobodin are being established. Law enforcement sources say he is in London.

According to the investigators, the suspects and also other unidentified accomplices in 2007-2014 handed over to several top officials of the Komi Republic cash assets and other property in exchange for the most beneficial thermoelectric power prices, and also for other comfortable conditions for doing business in the republic.

A group of ex-officials of the Komi Republic, including its former head, Vyacheslav Gaizer, are under investigation.

Mikhail Slobodin became head of VimpelCom’s Russia in September 2013. Before joining VimpelCom, Mikhail was Executive Vice President of Strategy and New Business Development with OJSC TNK-BP Management.

Between 2003 and 2011, Slobodin held key positions in several companies in the Oil & Gas sector.