Exclusive: Bosnian Charged In Uss Escape Is Released To Italy; U.S. Drops Extradition Request
By Maja Zivanovic and Mike Eckel (Eckel is a Fletcher alum and Senior News Correspondent)
A Bosnian man arrested in connection with the audacious escape of Russian businessman Artyom Uss from Italian arrest has been released and is now cooperating with Italian investigators.
U.S. prosecutors, meanwhile, have for now dropped their extradition request against the man, Vladimir Jovancic, who also faces a U.S. indictment for aiding Uss’s March 2023 escape.
Jovancic’s release from Croatian detention, and the halt to U.S. extradition proceedings, neither of which has been reported previously, are small but significant developments in the continuing investigation of how Uss — the politically connected son of a powerful Russian governor — managed to slip out of Italy on the eve of his extradition to the United States.
Uss had been arrested by Italy after being charged by the U.S. Justice Department with overseeing an elaborate smuggling network that had secretly shipped Western military technology to Russia — some of which had ended up on Ukrainian battlefields.
The United States has offered a $7 million reward for information leading to Artyom Uss’s arrest.
His escape embarrassed Italian authorities and prompted criticism from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said there had been “anomalies” in the decisions that ultimately led to Uss’s escape.
Jovancic, a 53-year-old national of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is one of eight people that Italian prosecutors have charged in connection with Uss’s escape.
He was arrested in December 2023 in Zagreb after U.S. prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment of him in connection with the escape.
Since then, Jovancic has been cooperating with Italian prosecutors, providing testimony on at least two occasions.
Sometime late last month, however, Jovancic was released from Croatian detention and was extradited to Italy after reaching a plea agreement, his Croatian lawyer Gordan Preglej, told RFE/RL. The conditions of the deal require his cooperation with Italian officials and three years of community service, Preglej said.
His release also included the agreement by U.S. prosecutors to halt extradition proceedings.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York confirmed that Jovancic’s extradition had been halted, but said the charges remain in place.
A spokesman for the Milan prosecutors’ office, which has been leading the Italian investigation, declined comment.
Where Is Uss?
Uss, whose father was the governor of the sprawling Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, slipped out of house arrest in a suburb of Milan on March 22, 2023, after disrupting the signal transmitted from a court-ordered electronic monitoring bracelet.
He and the people who aided him then drove east, across Slovenia, Croatia, and into Serbia. He later flew back to Krasnoyarsk.
Italian authorities have cast a wide net across Europe, trying to identify and arrest the people involved in the escape.
In addition to Jovancic, others who have been arrested or detained include his son, Boris, who is believed to be in Italian custody; and a Slovenian man arrested in Ljubljana.
The Ljubljana District Court told RFE/RL that that man, Matej Janezic, had been been released from custody, and extradited to Italy.
Italian officials have also charged an obscure Serbian businessman named Srdjan Lolic.
Roughly three weeks after he allegedly helped Uss flee Italy, Lolic traveled to the North Pole, via Krasnoyarsk, accompanying a top Krasnoyarsk government official, and other Russian officials. Not known as a polar explorer, Lolic claimed to have been the first Serb to have reached the North Pole.
Lolic’s whereabouts are currently unknown. But Italian court documents show he has provided written testimony to Italian prosecutors about the people who helped Uss escape.
Some of that testimony appears to have helped in the latest arrest announced by Italian officials on June 14: Dmitry Chirakadze, a Russian businessman who lives in Switzerland and controls a Sardinian hotel linked to Uss.
Chirakadze, who was arrested as he arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, has been fighting a court detention order, according to his defense lawyer.
Italian authorities have also charged Uss’s wife, Maria Yagodina, in connection with the plot.
Both she and Uss are believed in Russia, possibly Krasnoyarsk. In comments to Russian media following Chirakadze’s arrest, Uss confirmed his business ties to Chirakadze and alleged the arrest was a “PR move” by Western officials.
The United States has offered a $7 million reward for information leading to Uss escape.
(This post is republished from RFERL.)