MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has initiated talks with Interpol on the possible resumption of the international search for head of the UK Hermitage Capital Management investment fund William Browder and Yukos case defendants, Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika says in an annual report to the Federation Council.

"During the reporting period [in 2015] we continued the development and application of new forms of work with the Interpol bodies with the aim of searching through the channels of this international organization of persons accused by the Russian investigative authorities of committing high-profile crimes. In particular, on the proposal of the Prosecutor General’s Office the Russian Interior Ministry initiated conciliatory consultations with the Interpol General Secretariat on resuming the international search for 13 persons (W.F. Browder, I.S. Cherkasov, A.L. Gorbachev, Yu.A. Beipin, M.A. Trushin, Yu.V. Nikitin, A.F. Borodin, A.B. Leonovich, V.N. Kartashov, N.V. Chernyshev, M.B. Brudno, A.V. Temerko, P.P. Ivlev)"

According to the prosecutor general, all of them are suspects in high-profile criminal cases, but information about the fact that they are internationally wanted had previously been blocked at the recommendation of the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF). "The participation of representatives of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in the first two rounds of such consultations has been organized", the report says.

On the whole, the Russian prosecutor general said, the number of the Prosecutor General’s Office orders to put persons on the international wanted list for their following arrest and extradition through Interpol channels increased by 76.4% in 2015. "This growth rate can be explained by a sharp increase in the number of persons declared internationally wanted for terrorism crimes: these persons departed from the country to take part in combat actions in Syria," the prosecutor general said.