Georgia files charges against Russia's MegaFon

By Niko Mchedlishvili

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia has launched a criminal investigation into Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon and wants Interpol to issue an international alert for its top managers, the head of the Georgian industry watchdog said on Friday.

Tbilisi alleges that MegaFon's mobile signal covers the breakaway region of South Ossetia, where Russian and Georgian forces fought a brief war in August.

MegaFon, Russia's third-largest operator, which is partially owned by Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera (TLSN.ST), has repeatedly denied it operated on Georgian territory saying it could not stop people accessing its services from base stations in nearby Russian regions.

"We will consider whether to take any steps after we receive the court decision," a MegaFon spokeswoman said on Friday.

The cross-border use of the signal constitutes illegal business practice, Georgy Arveladze, head of Georgia's National Communications Commission (GNCC), told Reuters in an interview.

"A criminal case has already been opened with the general prosecutor's office. Warrants for the arrest of the company's heads have been given and an international alert for them will be soon issued through the channels of Interpol," he said.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian rebel region of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92.

Russia responded with a counter-strike that drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

In June, before the conflict, the Georgian communications council fined MegaFon 5,000 lari for illegal business practices. The fine was later increased to 500,000 lari ($360,000), and GNCC said it could be doubled.

MegaFon's lawyers have disputed the actions against it in Tbilisi city court, but the court on Thursday sided with the communications council.

MegaFon's other shareholders include Russia's Alfa Group and billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Arveladze said GNCC would also soon decide on imposing a fine of 50,000 lari on Russia's Vesti radio and state television station for broadcasting in and around South Ossetia.

Russian state gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) is building a pipeline to South Ossetia, Russian aid accounts for much of the budgets of the separatist administrations and the Kremlin plans to station a total of 7,600 troops in the two breakaway regions.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and has repeatedly demanded that Moscow pull its troops out of core Georgia.

European Union monitors have now entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia to begin a peacekeeping operation.

(Writing by Simon Shuster and Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Sue Thomas)