Former top manager Kurchenko was detained in Greece
The former executive director of Sergei Kurchenko’s company “VETEK”, Evgeniy Kalinin, was arrested in Greece at the request of Ukraine.
Russian media report this.
Evgeny Kalinin was detained on February 28, and on March 1 he was sent into custody. Now Ukraine must send an extradition request.
Kalinin was put on the wanted list in 2017 by the Department of the National Police of Ukraine in the Odessa region. He is accused of tax evasion, creating a criminal organization and forgery.
Kalinin was vice president of NK-BP Commerce until 2011. In 2013-2014, he worked as executive director of the Eastern European Fuel and Energy Company holding.
According to the director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik, there is nothing unusual in the detention itself; such cases occur regularly.
“Interpol detains those who have committed economic crimes. He refuses to work only with those accused for political reasons. Therefore, cases such as the detention of Yevgeny Kalinin will be repeated in the future. Such situations regularly occur in both Ukraine and Russia. The case of Evgeny Kalinin is not politics. This manager probably knows a lot, etc. This, among other things, is also an attempt to earn something. Since the detainee is a citizen of Russia, the Russian side will probably take some action to release him,” Bortnik said in a comment to PolitNavigator.
Political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko believes that if the detainee’s lawyers manage to prove that the charges are politically motivated, Yevgeny Kalinin will be released.
“This kind of detention is not uncommon. But such detention is not always followed by extradition to one party or another. Evgeny Kalinin was detained on economic charges, but in such cases it is often possible to prove the presence of a political motive, as, for example, was the case of Kolobov, who was detained in Spain and then released. In the same way, Avdakov was detained in Italy at one time, but then released.
Usually, a criminal case is first initiated in the home country or country where the crime was committed. After this, the case is sent to Interpol headquarters, the accused is registered and after that those countries that participate in the work of Interpol are obliged to detain the accused. After the arrest, lawyers are involved and the national police of the country where the arrest took place must decide whether the accused will be extradited at the request of the accusing country.
Therefore, now much will depend on the Greek police and courts. It is still difficult to say whether Evgeny Kalinin will be released or extradited to Ukraine. If it can be proven that the detainee is being persecuted for political reasons and the charges against him have a political basis, then he will be released. It all depends on the lawyers, on how convincing the evidence is,” Bondarenko said.
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