ROME: Italy arrested on Friday a suspect accused of helping a Russian governor’s son flee to his home nation while facing US extradition over alleged illegal export of military technology, authorities said.
The US Justice Department said some of the equipment had been “discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine.”
The suspect allegedly arranged for Artyom Uss to leave Italy in March 2023, the day after an Italian court ordered his extradition to the United States.
Artyom Uss, son of Siberian region governor Alexander Uss, was detained at Milan Malpensa airport on a US warrant in October 2022.
Washington accuses Uss of being involved in illegal schemes to export US military technology to Russia.
Despite wearing an electronic tracking bracelet, Uss went missing from his residence and several days later announced he was back in Russia.
The suspect arrested Friday, also a Russian, is suspected of having followed the decisions of the Milan court which ordered Uss’s extradition and preparing a plan for his escape.
The suspect, a Swiss resident, is also accused of “contacting the members of the gang who subsequently carried out the escape,” according to a statement from the Milan public prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors said the 54-year-old, whose name they have not made public, was in constant contact with Uss’s family “in order to control the organization and execution of the exfiltration.”
Italian media identified the suspect as entrepreneur Dmitry Chirakadze, co-founder of the Pravo.ru group, which provides assistance to Russian court websites.
While not naming the suspect, the prosecutor’s office described the man as an aristocrat descended from a grand duke of Georgia.
He is also a shareholder in “numerous Russian companies with the involvement of members of the Uss family,” it added.
The five men who carried out the escape by car across the Balkans have all already been arrested.
Italy arrests suspect over flight of Russian wanted in US
https://arab.news/gqw4x
Italy arrests suspect over flight of Russian wanted in US
- The US Justice Department said some of the equipment had been “discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine“
- The suspect allegedly arranged for Artyom Uss to leave Italy in March 2023, the day after an Italian court ordered his extradition to the US
India accelerates free trade agreements against backdrop of US tariffs
- India signed a CEPA with Oman on Thursday and a CETA with the UK in July
- Delhi is also in advanced talks for trade pacts with the EU, New Zealand, Chile
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade.
India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its goods without paying tariffs, covering 98 percent of the total value of India’s exports to the Gulf nation.
The deal comes less than five months after a multibillion-dollar trade agreement with the UK, which cut tariffs on goods from cars to alcohol, and as Indian trade negotiators are in advanced talks with New Zealand, the EU and Chile for similar partnerships.
They are part of India’s “ongoing efforts to expand its trade network and liberalize its trade,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The renewed efforts to sign bilateral FTAs are partly an after-effect of New Delhi realizing the importance of diversifying trade partners, especially after India’s biggest export market, the US, levied tariff rates of up to 50 percent on India.”
Indian exporters have been hit hard by the hefty tariffs that went into effect in August.
Months of negotiations with Washington have not clarified when a trade deal to bring down the tariffs would be signed, while the levies have weighed on sectors such as textiles, auto components, metals and labor-intensive manufacturing.
The FTAs with other nations will “help partially in mitigating the effects of US tariffs,” Manur said.
In particular, Oman can “act as a gateway to other Gulf countries and even parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa,” and the free trade deal will most likely benefit “labor-intensive sectors in India,” he added.
The chances of concluding a deal with Washington “will prove to be difficult,” said Arun Kumar, a retired economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“With the US, the chances of coming to (an agreement) are a bit difficult, because they want to get our agriculture market open, which we cannot do. They want us to reduce trade with Russia. That’s also difficult for India to do,” he told Arab News.
US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions over India’s historic ties with Moscow and its imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help fund Moscow’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“President Trump is constantly creating new problems, like with H-1B visa and so on now. So some difficulty or the other is expected. That’s why India is trying to build relationships with other nations,” Kumar said, referring to increased vetting and delays under the Trump administration for foreign workers, who include a large number of Indian nationals.
“Substituting for the US market is going to be tough. So certainly, I think India should do what it can do in terms of promoting trade with other countries.”
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.
It is in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA, amid new negotiations launched this year for trade agreements, including with New Zealand and Chile.
India’s approach to trade partnerships has been “totally transformed,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a press briefing following the signing of the CEPA with Oman, which Indian officials aim to enter into force in three months.
“Now we don’t do FTAs with other developing nations; our focus is on the developed world, with whom we don’t compete,” he said. “We complement and therefore open up huge opportunities for our industry, for our manufactured goods, for our services.”
