Russian Sought By US For Tech Smuggling Escapes House Arrest In Italy

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- A politically connected Russian man facing extradition to the United States for evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering escaped house arrest in Milan after his electronic bracelet was hacked.

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Artem Us, 40, the son of a Siberian governor, has been charged by US prosecutors with being part of a global network that illegally imported US technology to support President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

One of Uso's Italian lawyers told Bloomberg by phone that the Russian's whereabouts are still unknown. "We can confirm that Artem Us escaped and we are shocked by this," said the lawyer.

Without saying where it got the information, Corriera del Sera said the Russian fugitive had already left Italy on a private plane. After we removed his electronic bracelet, the police ran to his house and broke down the door, but he was already gone.

Uladzimir Osechkin, the founder of Gulagu.net and a human rights activist, who claimed to have received the information from Russian intelligence, said. Your account cannot be independently verified.

Secret chip deals allegedly help US reach Russia

Ous was arrested in Milan last October and accused of defrauding the United States and violating sanctions by obtaining secret US technology under sanctions, as well as Venezuelan oil. He denied his guilt, while his father, Alexander, the governor of Krasnoyarsk region, condemned the politically motivated accusations.

About six weeks later, the court released us under house arrest. On Tuesday, a court in Milan approved his extradition, but only for violating an embargo on buying Venezuelan oil and for bank fraud.

Last year, Russia filed money-laundering charges against the USS and in January a court in Milan asked to return it to Russia.

Russia has expressed interest in trading WNBA star Brittney Griner for former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan to avoid her falling into U.S. custody, according to two people close to Russian intelligence.

If we were to talk to U.S. investigators "perhaps in exchange for a reduced sentence or other incentives," that "could be the key to unraveling this network and determining how much Russia contributed to its military capabilities," Jodi Victors said. , a professor at Georgetown University who studies US national security.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Rabkov said on Wednesday that US officials were not very interested in the exchange when asked about a possible deal involving the USS. "I don't know what happened to Mr. Bizim is not going to happen, but I hope he will return home somehow," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Tass news service.

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