MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office will bring murder charges January 24 against a former senator of Bashkiria, a republic in the country's southwest Urals, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Igor Izmestyev, accused of killing the wife of his former business partner, notary Galina Perepelkina in Moscow in 2001, was detained January 16 at Bishkek Airport in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, and extradited to Moscow.

His arrest was sanctioned by a Moscow court January 18 but the ex-senator pleaded not guilty.

"The charge is absurd. I was abducted. The money is the only problem," he said.

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor General's Office said earlier that it had sanctioned Izmestyev's detention.