"The search of [Mikhail] Shestopalov's dacha was conducted October 18. Investigators did not find the two pistols he had been presented with while working in the Interior Ministry, but they confiscated other arms," Boris Kuznetsov said.
He said Shestopalov was not in Russia, and that prosecutors broke into the house, prohibiting the vice president's wife from entering.
Kuznetsov added that he has filed a complaint against investigators and has proposed handing over the pistols they failed to find, but the Prosecutor's General Office refused to accept them.
He said the search was illegal and suggested that it was related to the case of Leonid Nevzlin, Yukos core shareholder, who is currently living in Israel and is on the international wanted list.
Nevzlin has been charged with fraud and involvement in a number of contract killings, and was put on the international wanted list July 21, 2004. Israel has refused to extradite him to Russia.
The Prosecutor's General Office has offered no comment on the search so far.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of what was once the leading independent oil company in Russia, is serving an eight-year prison term on fraud and tax evasion charges.
