Ukrainian director Yevgeny Lavrenchuk was detained in Naples, Italy at the request of Russia. This was reported on January 3 by the Obozrevatel portal with reference to the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko.
According to him, the Ukrainian was detained on December 17. Lavrenchuk, with the assistance of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Italy, was provided with a lawyer; during the consideration of the request of the Russian side, the director will be in custody.
On December 31, the Ukrainian consul visited him, noting that the detainee was being held in acceptable conditions, his health condition was satisfactory.
“Consuls and a lawyer interact with Italian law enforcement agencies to find out all the reasons for the detention and protection of Lavrenchuk’s legitimate interests,” Nikolenko said.
Lavrenchuk, a native of Lviv, graduated from the Russian Academy of Theater Arts with a degree in Opera Director. He is a co-founder of the Polish Theater in Moscow, which he directed until 2014. At the moment Lavrenchuk is the chief director of the Odessa Opera.
The Free Eugene Lavrenchuk Facebook page claims that the Russian Federation is demanding the director’s extradition as part of an eight-year-old financial crime case.
On September 12, at the request of Kiev, Russian Alexander Franchetti was detained in Prague. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the Czech Republic did not inform the Russian Federation about the detention of its citizen and about the charges brought against him.
On September 14, a Czech court took Franchetti into custody. According to the defense, the Russian faces a prison sentence of two to eight years in Ukraine. He was wanted to be prosecuted for his participation in the organizations “Self-Defense of Crimea” and “North Wind” (Article 260 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
On December 18, it became known that Franchetti was worried about his health – the man had heart and vision problems. The message from the Ukrainian side, conveyed to him by the Czech prosecutor’s office, the Russian called “an absolute fake”, stating that the locations of actions and the chronology of events indicated in the document do not correspond to reality.
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