MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - Interpol has officially put Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the former owner of Russian cell phone retailer Euroset, on a wanted list, Russia's Interpol Bureau said Thursday.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Wednesday that it had requested Chichvarkin's inclusion on the international wanted list.

Charges against Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who is currently in Britain with his family, were brought as part of an earlier kidnapping case against former Euroset vice president Boris Levin and two other company officials.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Chichvarkin in late January. It was appealed against by the businessman's lawyers as "illegal and without grounds" as no separate criminal case against Chichvarkin had been opened. But the Moscow City Court ruled the warrant legal.

The businessman is suspected of authorizing the 2003 abduction of Euroset's shipping agent, Andrei Vlaskin, who allegedly stole large quantities of mobile phones from the company and then sold them on through a retail outlet he had set up for the purpose.

Chichvarkin currently has no plans to return to Russia and his lawyer said Britain would most likely refuse to hand him over.

"Charges against Chichvarkin were brought illegally in terms of procedure, and I am 100% sure that Russia will be denied extradition because Britain is scrupulous about personal immunity and freedom," Vladimir Zherebenkov said.