Prosecutors are seeking more than 66,000 suspects abroad, mainly in Israel and Britain, and have placed their names on an international wanted list, said Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev.
"The majority of runaways have fled to Israel and Britain," Zvyagintsev said in an interview published Friday in Rossiiskaya Gazeta. He said wealthy suspects preferred to live in London.
Among the Russians known to live in self-imposed exile in Britain are former Kremlin powerbroker Boris Berezovsky, former Rosneft head Mikhail Gutseriyev and former Yevroset owner Yevgeny Chichvarkin.
Zvyagintsev said prosecutors sent more than 500 extradition requests abroad over the past year, and foreign courts agreed to extradite more than 300 people.
While Britain and Israel are favored destinations for suspects, an increasing number are fleeing to "exotic countries" where Russia has no extradition agreements, including Nicaragua, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, Zvyagintsev said.
Russia, meanwhile, refused to extradite almost 350 people wanted by other countries last year, he said.
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