MOSCOW (AP) - Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that a nationwide search had been launched for the chairman of the top exporter of Stolichnaya vodka, charging him with threatening to kill a top agriculture official amid a trademark dispute.
SPI Group, which says it exports Russia's most famous vodka to nearly 100 countries, called the case against its chairman Yuri Shefler groundless, and a government effort to quash private business.
SPI and the Agriculture Ministry are embroiled in a legal dispute over the trademark for Stolichnaya and other popular brands. The Agriculture Ministry claims it is the rightful owner of the trademarks because SPI obtained them as a result of an illegal privatization deal in the early 1990s.
Prosecutors issued the search warrant for Shefler and charged him after he failed repeatedly to show up for questioning, the press service of the Prosecutor-General's office said. He is accused of threatening the life of a top Agriculture Ministry official, it said, without naming the official or giving other details.
The Agriculture Ministry would not comment on the case.
"This is being done with the goal of discrediting not only me personally, but also the whole company," Shefler said in a statement released by SPI. "I'm not hiding from anyone and don't plan to."
Shefler was in Yurmala, Latvia, on Wednesday for the opening of a music festival sponsored by an SPI subsidiary, and planned to spend the next several weeks on vacation before deciding whether to return to Russia, SPI spokesman Sergei Boguslavsky said.
Boguslavsky called the case against Shefler groundless and illegal, saying Russia's new criminal process code forbids prosecutors from charging someone in absentia. The Prosecutor-General's office would not comment on the claim.
"It's a good example of how our current authorities deal with business and with their leaders," Boguslavsky said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to improve the country's business climate, and has criticized the shady privatization deals that were common in the 1990s. SPI officials say the Stolichnaya dispute was discussed during U.S. President George W. Bush's summit with Putin in May.
Earlier this year, a customs dispute forced SPI to move its production to Latvia. Now both SPI and Soyuzplodoimport, an arm of the Agriculture Ministry, claim the right to export the vodka. Neither company would release current export figures.