WASHINGTON. Sept 8 : Swiss investigators have linked President Boris Yeltsin and other high-ranking Russian officials to 10 million to 15 million dollars in kickbacks paid by a Swiss firm. The Washington Post reported Wednesday, reports AFP.

It was the first time the size of the alleged payoffs to Russia’s first family was disclosed in the so-called Kremlingate scandal in which a Swiss firm allegedly paid bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts to refurbish the Kremlin. /

The Swiss construction company Mabetex paid tens of thousands of dollars in bills on credit cards in the names of Yeltsin and his two daughters, according to unidentified law enforcement officials quoted by the daily in Geneva.

Mabetex also made between 10 million and 15 million dollars in payoffs to high-ranking Russian officials, includi ig Yeltsin, and their families, one official familiar with the inquiry said.

On Friday, the head of Mabetex, Bexnet Pacolli, a

Kosovar Albanian businessman whose firm won a lucrative contract to renovate the Kremlin and other-Russian monuments, denied that he had paid bribes to Russian officials.

Pacolli said the Russian prosecutor's office had merely misinterpreted payments he made to suppliers, believing them to be money to corrupt senior Kremlin officials.

Investigators discovered the credit cards Issued to Yeltsin and his two daughters while looking for payments from Mabetex to Pavel Borodin, the Russian official who managed the Swiss firm's contracts with the Kremlin, the daily said.

Mabetex records show that it made regular credit card payments over two to three years to a Swiss bank. It was not clear what purchases were made with the credit cards, officials told the Post.

In a separate probe. US and British investigators are looking into whether up to 15 billion dollars funnelled through US bank accounts may have been laundered by Russia’s political and business elite.