NICOSIA, April 25. /TASS/. A court in Nicosia ruled to extradite Artur Petrov, a Russian national who was arrested in Cyprus last August for illegally exporting to Russia sensitive microelectronics, to the United States, overturning a lower court decision.
In an interview with TASS, Petrov said he was aghast at the verdict after a district court in Larnaca previously dismissed the extradition request. "My lawyers will scrutinize the decision of the court of appeal [for major juridical errors] <…> after which it will be clear whether we should appeal it at the Supreme Court of Cyprus," he said.
Petrov, 34, who is also a German citizen, was arrested in Cyprus on August 26, 2023 at the request of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on charges of illegally exporting US-made microelectronics to Russia. The DOJ alleges that Petrov "participated in an international illicit procurement network," which after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine "illegally procured large quantities of sensitive microelectronics for a Russian company." The DOJ claimed that "the transactions and shipments were in contravention of US export controls relating to Russia."
Petrov stated from the very beginning that he believed his case to be politically motivated. According to him, he is being persecuted in the United States simply for being "a Russian entrepreneur."