Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Uss recorded a video message in which he thanked everyone who was worried about his son Artem, who was arrested in Italy at the request of the United States and then escaped from house arrest. The official especially thanked Vladimir Putin, saying that he is not "just the head of our state, he is a man with a big and open heart."
Uss stressed that he would not tell how his son was able to escape from arrest. “Artyom could have said this, but for various reasons he is not a person inclined to publicity, and whether he will talk about it, what and when, I don’t know,” the governor said.
On April 4, the press service of the government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory reported that Artem Uss was in Russia. At the same time, it became known that his preventive measure was changed to a written undertaking not to leave: in December, a Russian court arrested the governor's son in absentia on charges of money laundering.
Artem Uss was detained in Italy in October, and in March a court in Milan approved his extradition to the United States. Two days later, the Russian escaped from house arrest.
The US accuses Uss of smuggling oil from Venezuela in circumvention of sanctions, exporting military technology from the US, bank fraud and money laundering. In this case, Uss's business partner Yury Orekhov and three other Russian citizens were detained .
The Russian authorities also turned to Italy with a request to extradite Uss, referring to the criminal case initiated against him. Presumably, in this way they tried to save him from being extradited to the United States.
