MOSCOW, April 28 (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Tuesday that Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin had been released by Poland as part of a prisoner swap, state news agency TASS reported.
Butyagin was arrested in Poland in December last year and had been due to be extradited to Ukraine, which accused him of conducting unauthorised excavations and plundering historical artefacts in Crimea. Russia had expressed outrage over his arrest and demanded his release.
The FSB said a Russian woman was also released. It said she was the wife of a Russian soldier serving with Moscow’s forces in Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova.
It said the two Russians were exchanged for two Moldovan spies who arrived in Russia last year and were detained by Russian security agencies.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Anna Peverieri; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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