Rogozin asked to check Friedman, who returned to Russia, for possible financing of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, who in September became a so-called "senator" from the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, told RIA Novosti that he had asked the Russian Investigative Committee to check reports that billionaire Mikhail Fridman may have financed the Ukrainian army.

"I filed an appeal today. I asked the IC to check the reports that Friedman financed the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as this falls under a tough article of the Criminal Code," Rogozin said. According to him, he also sent similar appeals to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and the FSB.

Last week, a court in Ukraine seized assets of companies owned by Russian businessmen Friedman, Pyotr Aven and Andrey Kosogorov. The value of the seized assets exceeds UAH 17 billion ($450 million).

According to the SBU, the businessmen are members of Putin's entourage and are involved in "schemes" of large-scale financing of Russia's armed aggression."

This week it became known that Friedman had arrived in Russia. He arrived from Israel after the Hamas militants attacked the country. Before that, he lived in the UK, where he was sanctioned after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and made cautious anti-war statements.

The day before, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Friedman is a Russian citizen "and can return to live here and leave here like any other Russian citizen. So there is nothing unusual here."

Commenting on his arrival in Russia, where he has not been since the beginning of the war, Friedman told Bloomberg: "When everything settles down, I plan to return to Israel and live there permanently."

The billionaire is under sanctions from the EU, the UK and the US over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He complained that it was impossible to live in Britain under sanctions. He has not yet been able to sell his Russian business.