Georgia has detained Russian citizen Tatyana Kurashkevich at the request of the United States. U.S. authorities suspect her of evading sanctions and supplying aircraft parts to Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry reported the arrest in a public statement released on June 5, saying that officers from the Central Criminal Police Department and the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office carried out the operation in close coordination with the FBI under a cooperation agreement between Georgian law enforcement agencies and the U.S. State Department.
“Law enforcement officers detained this individual at Tbilisi International Airport as a result of an investigation. She was wanted at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for various crimes, including charges of aiding and abetting criminal activity, criminal conspiracy, and money laundering. Extradition proceedings against the detainee are currently underway,” the statement read.
Lawyer Beka Nemsitveridze told TV Pirveli that the U.S. investigation involves several charges, including money laundering and taking part in criminal activity. He said the case is connected to supplies of aircraft parts to Russia.
The identity of Tatyana Kurashkevich was confirmed by Eva Merkacheva, a member of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council. Merkacheva said Kurashkevich is an entrepreneur, a postgraduate student at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s MGIMO university, and an expert on international trade. Citing documents provided by Kurashkevich’s husband, Merkacheva wrote that the charges include “several counts, all economic, involving sanctions evasion and so on,” with prison terms listed as “three episodes of 20 years each and one of 10 years. 70 years in total.”
Merkacheva claimed that Kurashkevich’s extradition to the United States “would violate international law.”
