A Milan court has approved the extradition to the United States of Artem Uss, a Russian businessman and son of Krasnoyarsk Territory Governor Alexander Uss. On this subject reported TASS is one of the Russian lawyers. In the United States, Uss Jr. is accused of circumventing sanctions and money laundering.
“The court approved the extradition for two of the four counts. Within 15 days, we will file an appeal with the Court of Cassation,” the lawyer said.
Artem Uss was arrested on October 17, 2022 at Milan Malpensa airport at the request of the United States. US authorities are accusing the governor’s son and four other Russians of money laundering, sanctions violations and smuggling. In addition to them, three Venezuelan citizens are accused in the case, who are accused of illegal oil transactions.
According to investigators, Uss and his accomplice Yuri Orekhov were co-owners of the shell company Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH (NDA GmbH), registered in Hamburg. Thanks to him, military technology was purchased from American manufacturers, including semiconductors and microprocessors used in combat aircraft, missile systems, radars and satellites. They were handed over to Russian companies, including those that fell under US sanctions (Radioavtomatika, Radioexport, Abtornix). Some of these details were found in Russian equipment captured during the fighting in Ukraine.
The US investigation also believes that Orekhov and Uss used NDA GmbH as a front to smuggle hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela to Russia and China. Among those buyers was a Russian aluminum company “controlled by a sanctioned oligarch”.
At the end of October, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow arrested Artem Uss in absentia for money laundering as part of a large-scale organized group and put him on the wanted list. “Kommersant” writing that Russia wants to “intercept” Uss from the United States. According to the newspaper, a criminal case was “hastily” opened against the governor’s son in order to obtain his extradition to his native country.
At an Italian court meeting in January, Uss himself requested his extradition to Russia, not the United States. He said that in the United States he could face discrimination. Uss’s defense argues that Washington wants to use the Russian for a future prisoner swap with Moscow, like Paul Whelan, who was convicted in Russia of espionage.
