The post of the Russian embassy in Italy. Artem Uss, arrested on October 17, is the son of the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region
“On October 17 this year at the Milan Malpensa airport, at the request of the American side, the citizen of the Russian Federation Artem Uss was arrested“This was confirmed by the Russian embassy in Italy with a post on Facebook, specifying that” within 45 days the United States is required to provide the Italian court with the file with the formulation of the charge, which must be examined within 6 months. “.
The Russian citizen, who according to the US Department of Justice he is the son of Aleksandr Uss, governor of the Krasnoyarsk region“he has not expressed any complaints about the conditions of detention”, the embassy continued, according to which “the consulate general of the Russian Federation in Milan has already held two meetings with Artem Uss, maintains constant contact with his Italian lawyer and intends to continue to closely follow this situation “.
The Russian citizen remains in prison in Busto Arsizio (Varese). This was decided by the Milan Court of Appeal before which the validation hearing took place last Tuesday. The businessman is accused of having purchased electronic components from the United States intended to equip aircraft, radars or missiles, and of having resold them to Russian companies, evading the sanctions in force. It is suspected that the network that has come under the scrutiny of American justice has used the same front company to transfer hundreds of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil to Russia and China.
Tomorrow Artem Uss, 40, recipient of the international arrest warrant, will appear before the Milan judge Roberto Peroni Ranchet for a hearing: assisted by the defender Vinicio Nardo he will have to confirm his identity and decide whether or not to give consent to the extraction, in the first case – rather unlikely – the question would actually be resolved. Otherwise, the Italian justice system will have to wait for the formal request for extradition, so that the entire documentation is transferred for a judgment on the merits. By code “within 45 days the United States is required to provide the Italian court with the file with the formulation of the charge, which must be examined within 6 months”.
Uss, which has some economic interests in Italy, met with his trusted lawyer yesterday. “He is like someone who has been put in prison”, explains the defender Nardo who, soon, he could ask for an alternative measure. In that case, the alternative to detention behind bars would be evaluated by a college of the Milan Court of Appeal, after setting a hearing.
The son of the governor of the Siberian region was indicted with four other Russian citizens on Wednesday by the US Justice Department accused of having participated in a plot aimed at circumventing sanctions which involved smuggling oil from Venezuela and US military technology then tracked down on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Eastern District of New York attorney, Breon Peace, called the accused “criminal accomplices of the oligarchs”, and stressed that they face sentences of up to 30 years, reiterating that it was demanded the extradition of Uss and his partner Yury Orekhov, arrested in Germany. “Their efforts undermine security, economic stability and the rule of law in the world,” concludes the Peace statement.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors have accused Uss of smuggling, along with another Russian citizen, Yury Orekhov, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela through a front company that the two have in Germany. The oil would be sent to China and Russia in an illegal multimillion-dollar deal, negotiated by two Venezuelan citizens, Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto, who have also been indicted.
Orekhov, together with Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, was then accused of having purchased military secret material and dual-use technologies in the United States to send it to Russian companies, including some operating in the defense sector. aided the Russians to acquire advanced semiconductors and microprocessors that can be used for fighters, missile systems and other military technology, the indictment of the US Justice states.
In some cases, electronic components from this provenance were allegedly found in Russian weapon systems captured in Ukraine. Two other Russian citizens, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov, who control sanctioned Russian companies that received this material, were also indicted.
Source-www.adnkronos.com