A billionaire Serb businessman and former key financier of the Slobodan Milosevic regime who is wanted by Interpol, has be granted political asylum in Russia, the Belgrade-based daily Blic newspaper reported Monday.

Bogoljub Karic, who reportedly amassed his fortune under the Serbian strongman's protection, is suspected of having embezzled 40 million euros (52 million dollars) from a joint venture with the government.

He fled Serbia in early 2006 immediately after he was charged for abuse of office.

Karic, who also served as a cabinet minister in the Milosevic government and ran for president in 2004, had sought political asylum in Russia in January 2008, Blic reported, quoting sources from the Justice Ministry in Belgrade.

Prosecutors charged him in January 2006 amid suspicions that he inflicted damage to the state in the Mobtel mobile telephone operator. It was a mixed-capital joint venture, with Karic holding 51 and the Serbian government 49 per cent of the capital.

Mobtel was just a part of his business empire, the Brothers Karic Group, which was worth billions of dollars in Serbia, the region and also Russia.