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The Polish Prosecutor's Office reported this Thursday the arrest in a Warsaw hotel of the Russian citizen identified as a senior official of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, whom Ukraine accuses of destroying Ukrainian historical heritage in the Crimean peninsula for more than 4 million euros.
In a statement released today, the Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW) confirmed that the detainee, Alexandr B., was in Warsaw as an intermediate stop on a trip between Amsterdam and Belgrade, and that he will remain in preventive arrest for 40 days.
For his part, prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, spokesperson for the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, confirmed that the detention aims to "ensure the rapid and efficient processing of extradition procedures", as Kiev has confirmed its intention to request the academic's handover in the coming days.
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The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office accuses him of intentional, illegal, and partial destruction of a cultural heritage site, a crime that constitutes a monument of national importance. Alexandr B., who was the head of the Ancient Archaeology Section of the North Black Sea Region of the Federal Institute of Culture of the Hermitage, is accused by Ukraine of conducting illegal excavations at the archaeological site of an ancient Greek colony in Kerch, Crimea. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the detainee also caused damage valued at more than four million euros, and tried to seize 34 gold coins from the 4th century B.C. with the intention of taking them to the Hermitage Museum. The crimes charged against the Russian citizen may carry a sentence of one to ten years in prison. Prosecutor Skiba reported that, during the interrogation at the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, Alexandr B. "refused to provide explanations".
