The US Justice Department suspects the detainee and several others of evading sanctions against Russia and smuggling oil.
Two Russian citizens who allegedly helped Moscow evade US sanctions to obtain military and dual-use technologies have been detained in the EU at the behest of the US. Alexander Uss, governor of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region and father of one of suspects, described the case brought by US authorities against the two as “clearly» politically motivated.
On Wednesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York issued a statement according to which it filed charges against five Russian citizens, two of whom, Yury Orekhov and Artem Uss, were arrested in Germany and Italy respectively.
US authorities claim the group had devised a scheme, whereby its members bought “advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radar, satellites” and sold them to sanctioned Russian entities through a German-based shell company called Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH). These goods allegedly ended up in the hands of the Russian defense industry and were later allegedly found in captured Russian hardware in Ukraine.
Furthermore, the Russian citizens in question, acting in collusion with several Venezuelan citizens, allegedly used NDA GmbH.”as a front to smuggle hundreds of millions of barrels of oil out of Venezuela to Russian and Chinese buyers, including a Russian aluminum company controlled by a sanctioned oligarch.”
If found guilty, the suspects could each face up to 30 years behind bars, the document revealed.
Commenting on his son’s arrest on his Telegram channel on Thursday, Governor Uss of the Krasnoyarsk region wrote: “The delivery of free petrochemicals, equipment and technical means, which are freely bought and sold around the world, is suddenly being declared illegal by the US authorities.” “Why?”, asked the official rhetorically, and immediately answering his own question: “Simply because it is being done for the benefit of Russia.”
“The political undertones are obvious in these accusations,Uss concluded.
News of the charges brought against Russian citizens coincided with the arrest of a 47-year-old Russian citizen in Norway. The authorities of the Scandinavian country accused Andrey Yakunin of illegally flying a drone from his luxury yacht. The man is the eldest son of Vladimir Yakunin, the former head of the state-owned Russian Railways.