The former head of Russia's fifth largest lender, Bank of Moscow, Andrei Borodin, and his former deputy Dmitry Akulinin have been put on an Interpol wanted list.

Russia earlier placed international arrest warrants for the two men, but the Interpol warrant is likely to make it harder for them to escape arrest.

Borodin, who together with Akulinin held 20.3 percent in the bank, did not want to lose his shares but in spring he finally gave up and sold his stake to businessman Vitaly Yusufov, the son of former Russian
Energy Minister Igor Yusufov, who in turn sold the stake to VTB.

Borodin claimed the bank's takeover was "political" and ordered by Medvedev in order to establish state control of the bank. Both the presidential administration and Yusufov denied Medvedev's involvement.