MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's main prosecutor's office said Tuesday that it has extended a deadline for completing its investigation into Boris Berezovsky, a tycoon living in self-imposed exile in Britain to avoid criminal charges.
The new deadline is Oct. 5, Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman Natalia Vishnyakova told Interfax news agency. "The extension was prompted by the need to carry out additional work," she said, according to Interfax.
The investigation was launched earlier this year after the head of the Federal Security Service - the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, known by its Russian initials FSB - had said the agency had information Berezovsky was linked to Chechen rebels, and turned over the materials to prosecutors, Interfax said.
Berezovsky has accused the FSB of complicity in the a series of apartment bombings in Russia that were blamed on Chechen rebels. The bombings were one of the reasons Russian forces began the second war in the breakaway province in 1999.
Berezovsky, who once wielded influence behind the scenes in the Kremlin but fell out of favor with President Vladimir Putin, is also wanted for questioning in a case of alleged embezzlement from Russia's flag-carrier Aeroflot airlines.
Berezovsky has said the allegations against him are politically motivated.