MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) - The Syktyvkar City Court in Russia’s Komi Republic has issued an arrest warrant in absentia for Mikhail Slobodin, former head of Russia’s telecommunications giant VimpelCom, in a bribery case involving republic’s officials, the court’s representative told RAPSI on Thursday.

The court ordered detention of Slobodin, who earlier has been put on the federal wanted list, for two months from the date of his arrest.

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.

According to Vladimir Markin, the Investigative Committee’s official spokesman, 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 suspects bribed the officials currently involved in the criminal case against the Republic’s ex-head Vyacheslav Gaizer with money and other assets.

“The total amount of funds transferred as money reward made over 800 million rubles ($12.3 million),” Markin said earlier.

Investigators claim that Olkhovik and Vainzikher have received 177 and 89 million rubles ($2.7 million and $1.4 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.

On September 7, Olkhovik and Vainzikher were put in detention for two months upon court order.