A court in Italy approved the extradition to the United States of the son of Krasnoyarsk Governor Artem Uss, who was detained on charges of circumventing sanctions and money laundering by the US authorities. This writes the Italian edition of Sivonline.
One of Uss’ lawyers told TASS that the court approved the extradition on two of the four counts. Within 15 days, the defense intends to appeal to the court of cassation
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The son of the governor was detained in Italy at the request of the United States on October 17, 2022. The US Justice Department accused him and four other Russians of “being accomplices of the oligarchs, organizing a complex scheme to illegally obtain US military technology and Venezuelan oil under sanctions through many transactions involving front companies and cryptocurrencies.” If Uss is extradited to the United States and testifies, it could have far-reaching consequences for the Kremlin, as it would reveal the schemes used by the Russian authorities to circumvent sanctions.
Uss is said to have been one of the owners of Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH), a privately held trade company for industrial equipment and goods based in Hamburg. U.S. authorities allege that NDA GmbH was used as a shell company to purchase secret military and dual-use technologies from U.S. manufacturers, including advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter jets, missile systems, munitions, radar, satellites, and other space applications. These goods were supplied to Russian companies, including the sanctioned companies Radioavtomatika, Radioexport and Abtroniks, which served the Russian defense sector. Some of the same electronic components obtained as part of the criminal scheme were found in Russian weapons found in Ukraine.
Lawyers for the detainee, according to La Repubblica, insisted that their client could be subjected to discriminatory treatment in an American prison. In addition, the defense of Uss stated that the US authorities intend to use their client for a future exchange with the Russian Federation. Lawyers believe that in exchange for Uss, the US authorities can expect to get Paul Whelan, an American convicted in Russia for espionage.
At the end of November last year, Artem Uss was released under house arrest. The man was put on an electronic bracelet, which he is required to wear until the completion of the proceedings on the request for his extradition to the United States. The Attorney General of Milan filed an extradition request for Uss to the United States. Uss asked the court to extradite him to Russia: “Extend me to the Russian authorities, do not extradite me to the USA.”
The extradition of Artem Uss is also demanded by the Russian authorities. He was put on the wanted list in the case of money laundering on an especially large scale by an organized group. The Meshchansky Court issued a warrant for his arrest in absentia. Previously, the case against the son of the governor in Russia was not reported. It is possible that it could be instituted precisely so that Uss would be extradited not to the United States, but to his homeland: in a similar way, with the help of a fraud case, Russia sought the extradition of the hacker Yevgeny Nikulin arrested in Prague. However, the Czech Republic eventually extradited Nikulin to the United States, where he received more than seven years in prison.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the detention of Uss “a continuation of a large-scale campaign launched by Washington to capture Russians who have “claims” for their subsequent guaranteed conviction by American punitive justice for long terms of imprisonment.”
Why the US is demanding the extradition of the son of the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory arrested in Italy. In America, he faces up to 30 years in prison:
