NEW YORK, August 10. /TASS/. Russian diplomats in New York received a notice from the US government about the extradition of Russian national Artur Petrov to the US and will seek access to him, Russian Consul General in New York Alexander Zakharov told TASS.
"I can tell you that at 3:50 p.m. we received a notification about the detention of our citizen and his extradition on August 8, 2024. We are talking about Artur Petrov who has dual citizenship of Russia and Germany," he said.
According to the consul general, a request for a consular meeting with him had already been sent to US officials.
"We will seek a telephone contact. In parallel we will seek to visit him," he said.
On August 9, the US Department of Justice announced that Petrov had been extradited to the US from Cyprus and appeared before a US court. He is indicted on 11 counts, facing from five to 20 years in prison on each of the counts.
Petrov was arrested in Cyprus on August 26, 2023, at Washington's request on charges of illegally exporting US-made microelectronics to Russia. According to the US Department of Justice, Petrov, 34, was allegedly a member of a network that, after the start of the special military operation, allegedly illegally exported large quantities of microelectronic equipment for a Russian company. The DOJ alleges that this activity circumvented US restrictions on shipments of certain types of high-tech equipment to Russia.
Petrov stated that his case is politically motivated. According to the Russian, the Americans are persecuting him just because he is a Russian entrepreneur.