Russian wanted by US announces escape from Italian arrest

The son of a Siberian governor arrested in Italy at Washington's request announced on Tuesday that he had escaped house arrest in Milan and was back in Russia.

Artyom Uss, the son of Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Uss, was arrested at Milan's Malpensa Airport last October on a US demand.

Washington accuses him of taking part in illegal schemes to export US military technology to Russia.

Artyom Uss had been held at his residence near Milan but required to wear an electronic bracelet.

According to Italian media reports, he disappeared the day after a court agreed his extradition to the US in late March.

On Tuesday, the 40-year-old Uss announced his successful getaway.

"I'm in Russia!" he told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"Over these few particularly dramatic days, I had strong and reliable people by my side. I want to thank them."

He gave no details on exactly how he had fled.

"The Italian court, that I was expecting to be impartial, demonstrated clear political bias," Uss was quoted as saying.

The Kremlin and his father Alexander Uss had both denounced the arrest as politically motivated.

Russian officials also said Moscow would do "everything possible" to defend him.

After USS was detained in Italy, a Moscow court ordered his arrest in absentia over money laundering.

Russia put Uss on a wanted list in a move seen as a way for Moscow to demand his extradition.

After Uss showed up in Russia, his lawyer Alexei Tikhomirov said that his client voluntarily went to see investigators in Moscow.

Tikhomirov told RIA Novosti that Uss no longer faces arrest in Russia and is merely under pledge not to travel.

Uss was one of five Russians arrested on Washington's request in October for "unlawful schemes to export powerful" US military technology to Russia.

The US Justice Department said some of these had been "discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine".

bur/yad

© Agence France-Presse