A criminal group from Serbia may be involved in the escape of Artem Uss. This was told The Wall Street Journal by her sources. According to them, a group of Serbs helped the son of the ex-governor of Krasnoyarsk to escape from Italy by ferry.
In March 2023, a court in Milan allowed Uss to be extradited to the United States, but the next day it became known that he had escaped from house arrest, and ended up in Russia on April 4. If extradited, he faced up to 30 years in prison.
WSJ writes that during the escape, Uss changed cars at least once, and also crossed the borders of several countries before reaching Serbia, from where, it is believed, he flew to Moscow. One of the interlocutors of the newspaper claims that a Serbian criminal group helped him to leave the country. The Italian authorities believe that Russian intelligence was not directly involved in the escape of the son of the ex-governor of Krasnoyarsk, since the risks of falling under surveillance were too high. At the same time, according to the sources of the newspaper, the Italian intelligence itself did not monitor Uss, as this “would be tantamount to unlawful interference in the trial.”
In April 2023, Italian journalists criticized the work of the country’s security services and offered their escape scenarios. So, the publication Corriere della Sera reported that, according to the investigation, six or seven people helped Uss escape, and almost all of them were from Eastern Europe. They left Italy with Uss. Milano Today claimed that Moscow’s special services were behind Uss’s escape. The newspaper La Repubblica suggested that Uss’s reference to “strong and reliable people” confirms the version of the investigation pointing to the role of Russian agents 007.
In early April 2023, Alexander Uss, then governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, confirmed that Artyom was in Russia. In a video message, he called the difficult path that his son took, but did not comment on the media version of what happened. At the end of April, Alexander Uss resigned as governor. His candidacy was nominated for the post of senator from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the Federation Council. This was reported to TASS by the authorities of the region.
