MOSCOW (Reuters) - International police organization Interpol has refused a Russian request for a search notice on former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's TASS news agency reported on Friday.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is being investigated in Russia on suspicion of ordering a contract killing. He was pardoned by Putin in 2013 and freed after a decade in jail on fraud charges and now lives abroad, traveling between Germany, Switzerland and Britain.
He denies the charges against him and suggests they are politically motivated because of his opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
TASS cited an Interpol spokesperson as saying that Russia's request for a search notice "did not correspond with the organization's rules".
"For this reason the National Central Bureau (of Interpol) in Moscow was informed that the channels of Interpol cannot be used for international police cooperation on this case," Interpol told TASS.
Last year Khodorkovsky told Reuters Putin had brought such stagnation that Russia could eventually collapse.