Ukraine seeking extradition of Russian citizen arrested in Prague
Ukraine has confirmed it requested that Czech authorities detain Aleksandr Franchetti, a Russian citizen wanted by Kyiv on an international arrest warrant, and is seeking his extradition to Kyiv, RFE/RL reports.
Franchetti, who was detained at Prague's international airport on September 12, is wanted by Ukraine for his alleged involvement in Russia’s 2014 "annexation" of Ukraine’s Black Sea region of Crimea.
"The detention was the result of coordinated actions of Ukrainian and Czech law enforcement agencies to bring Aleksandr Franchetti to justice for a number of crimes against our state, including the participation in the Russian occupation of Crimea," Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on September 13.
The Kremlin has not officially commented on the case, but the chief of Russia's Investigative Committee said he has ordered an investigation into the arrest.
"Due to the unacceptability of the misuse of international legal mechanisms aimed at politically motivated prosecutions, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation ordered the chief of the directorate for legal issues and international cooperation...to thoroughly study, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry of Russia, the reasons and legal grounds of the Russian citizen's detainment on the territory of a foreign country," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.