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Grounds for detention of Russian national Franchetti in Prague to be probed into

The Russian embassy in the Czech Republic said earlier on Sunday that Russian national Alexander Franchetti had been detained at Prague’s international airport

MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has issued an instruction to probe into the detention of Russian national Alexander Franchetti at Prague airport, the Investigative Committee’s press service said on Sunday.

"Bearing in mind the inadmissibility of abusing mechanisms of international law to bring people to responsibility on political grounds, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee instructed chief of the Committee’s international cooperation directorate O.Yu. Mikhailov to thoroughly investigate, in cooperation with the Russian foreign ministry, the causes and legal grounds of the detention of a Russian national on the territory of a foreign state," it said.

The Russian embassy in the Czech Republic said earlier on Sunday that Russian national Alexander Franchetti had been detained at Prague’s international airport. An officer of the embassy’s consular department was sent to the airport to provide all necessary consular assistance. The embassy said it was in contact with the Czech authorities and the man’s relatives.

According to local police sources, he was detained under an international arrest warrant issued by Ukraine. Media report that his detention might probably be linked with his involvement in the events of Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014.

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