MOSCOW (AP) - Russian prosecutors have issued a new arrest warrant for tycoon Boris Berezovsky, his lawyer said, and Russian Railways Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko was charged Friday with abuse of power, the Interfax news agency reported.

The cases against two of the formerly most influential Kremlin insiders suggested the government of President Vladimir Putin was renewing efforts to distance itself from the corruption-tainted administration of former President Boris Yeltsin.

Berezovsky, whom some called the gray eminence of Yeltsin's inner circle, is now a harsh critic of Putin and has tried to rally opposition forces. Aksyonenko, who was once so powerful that he came close to being nominated one of Yeltsin's prime ministers, has become far less visible
in the Putin Cabinet.

Putin demoted him from first deputy prime minister to railways minister, the post he held before his links with Yeltsin's inner circle and top power brokers led to his promotion to No. 2 in the Cabinet.

Aksyonenko, a career railway official, was linked in the Russian media to Berezovsky, the subject of frequent accusations of corruption and political manipulation at the highest levels during the Yeltsin years. Interfax had no details of the charges against him, but NTV reported that
he was accused of misuse of funds. The station also said that he had offered his resignation.

Berezovsky, one of Russia's so-called oligarchs, has lived abroad in recent months in self-exile to avoid a criminal case that he contends is politically motivated. Russian authorities have accused executives at the Aeroflot airline of funneling dlrs 970 million in revenue to two Swiss firms founded by Berezovsky, Forus and Andava.

Now he has been accused of "abetting in not returning hard currency assets from abroad and money-laundering," his lawyer Semyon Aria said in an interview with the NTV television network. Aria said his complicity consisted in helping several acquaintances get jobs in the Aeroflot
airline.