Artem Uss, the son of entrepreneur and Krasnoyarsk Territory Governor Alexander Uss, escaped from house arrest in Milan. In this respect informs Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“On the afternoon of March 22, a Russian senior executive opened his electronic bracelet and left his apartment in Basiglio, a town south of the Lombard capital. The forty-year-old man had already fled when the gendarmes of the Corsico company arrived, ”the newspaper writes.
La Stampa states that Uss fled the day after the Milan appeals court approved his extradition to the United States – US prosecutors accuse the governor’s 40-year-old son of violating sanctions against Russia and Venezuela, illegal transactions and money laundering. Now the authorities are looking for him.
Uss Jr. was detained at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on October 17, 2022, at the request of the United States – he was to fly to Turkey. Washington thinks he’s involved in several crimes at once.
In particular, it is alleged that Artem Uss purchased secret military technologies, semiconductors, microprocessors and other electronic components through a German company they owned, along with several other Russians, which were later used in the Western-controlled Russian defense industry. sanctions.
The US also believes that Uss and his partner Yuri Orekhov (arrested in Germany the same day as the governor’s son) used Hamburg-based NDA GmbH as a cover to transport hundreds of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil to Russia. and China.
After his arrest, Uss was first sent to a prison in Busto Arsizio, in the Italian province of Varese, but at the end of November last year, the court replaced his preventive measure with house arrest.
Uss himself denied his guilt. The businessman’s lawyer said, “It has activities in Italy, so it doesn’t pass through here.” In Russia, Uss Jr. He was accused of money laundering and was arrested in absentia. Moscow also sent an extradition request to Italian investigators. Artem Uss asked for it himself.
Italian media wrote that Rome was inclined to extradite the governor’s son to Washington so that the US could use him in a valuable prisoner exchange in the future.
The Russian’s father, Alexander Uss, head of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, said that after his son was detained in Italy, the criminal case against him was politically motivated.
“The supply of petroleum products, publicly available equipment and technical tools, freely sold and purchased around the world, was suddenly outlawed by the American authorities. From where? Just because it was done for the good of Russia. The political color of these accusations is clear,” Uss Sr. on Telegram.
The Kremlin condemned the arrest of Artem Uss. “We are categorically opposed and condemn such detention practices by Russian citizens,” said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, at the end of October 2022.
He also said that Russian diplomats will do everything possible to protect the businessman in Italy. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that they viewed the US arrest as “a continuation of Washington’s large-scale campaign to capture the Russians” and that there were “allegations” later made by American criminal justice to their long-guaranteed convictions. imprisonment.
On March 23, Kommersant, citing sources in the presidential administration, reported that Alexander Uss could be sacked in the near future. Among the reasons, the newspaper’s addressees listed rating problems. Vedomosti previously wrote about the possible resignation of Uss Sr.