By Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz
WARSAW, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Poland has detained a Russian archaeologist whom Ukraine accuses of unauthorised excavation and plundering historical artefacts in Crimea, Polish authorities said on Thursday, prompting outrage from Moscow which demanded his immediate release.
Ukraine, which has moved some museum pieces abroad for their safety, accuses Russia of taking precious historical items from Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and from other parts of the country following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“(The Ukrainians) have suspicions about this person regarding… theft of cultural property,” Polish Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told private broadcaster TOK FM. “The court has ordered his arrest so that this case can be resolved calmly.”
Siemoniak’s spokesperson, Jacek Dobrzynski, told Polsat News that the Russian had been detained in Warsaw on December 4.
POLISH AUTHORITIES AWAIT UKRAINE’S EXTRADITION REQUEST
Polish prosecutors said in an emailed statement that a court had agreed to allow the man, named only as Alexander B. because of Polish privacy laws, to be kept in custody for 40 days while authorities await an extradition request from Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry identified the man as Alexander Butyagin and said he was an employee of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It said that Butyagin had been invited to deliver a series of lectures on the “Last Day of Pompeii” in Warsaw and several other European cities.
There was no immediate comment from prosecutors in Ukraine or from the Ukrainian culture ministry.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, now located in the Ukrainian city of Kherson following Russia’s seizure and annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, has previously said Alexander B’s team conducted unauthorised excavations in the ancient city of Myrmekion in the Kerch area, causing damage of over 200 million hryvnias ($4.73 million).
Ukraine also says his team seized 30 gold coins, of which 26 were inscribed with the name of Alexander the Great and four were minted during the reign of his brother Philip ΙΙΙ Arrhidaeus.
KREMLIN ACCUSES POLAND OF ‘LEGAL TYRANNY’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the action by Poland, a NATO member and staunch supporter of Ukraine.
“This is absolute legal tyranny. We will of course demand through diplomatic channels the right to protect the interests of our citizen,” Peskov told a daily press briefing.
“Considering the apparent hostility towards our country currently prevailing in Warsaw, it is certainly not the most suitable place for our citizens to travel to and visit, given the complete lawlessness that reigns there,” he added.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the detention was politically motivated.
“We hope that Poland understands the absurdity of accusing a respected Russian archaeologist of ‘destroying cultural heritage’ on Russian territory and recognises that such politicised actions cannot succeed and will not go unpunished,” it said.
Russian diplomats have visited Butyagin and are in touch with his lawyer who is appealing the Polish court’s decision to detain him, the ministry said.
($1 = 42.3000 hryvnias)
(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish, Anna Koper;Additional reporting by Moscow bureau Editing by Gareth Jones)
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