Media: Belarus gave wanted Ukrainian oligarch diplomatic post to block extradition to US.
Belarus assigned the Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash with a diplomatic post in Vienna to avoid his extradition to the U.S., Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on June 27. Firtash, formerly a close associate to Ukraine's pro-Russian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, received a position at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the outlet wrote. UNIDO is a UN body that assists mainly post-colonial countries with industrial and economic development.
U.S. prosecutors charged[1] Firtash with racketeering and bribery in 2014 and he was briefly arrested in Austria before posting bail. The Ukrainian tycoon has so far avoided extradition from Austria's capital, where he resides. The DW wrote that Belarus gave Firtash the diplomatic position already on June 29, 2021, but Austria's Justice Ministry did not recognize the accreditation, and thus neither Firtash's much-coveted diplomatic immunity.
However, on June 16, Firtash achieved a major victory when an Austrian court supported his appeal to start the 9-year-old case anew due to the businessman's new position with the UNIDO, DW reported. This suggests that his proceedings can take many more years, again postponing the extradition, the outlet explained. The Ukrainian businessman holds assets mainly in Ukraine's gas companies.
On May 15, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) accused[2] him of embezzling millions of hryvnias worth of state gas. Firtash accumulated[3] much of his wealth by buying Russian gas and selling it in his home country. He used his funds to back Yanukovych's successful 2010 presidential bid.
Martin Fornusek
News Editor
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He also volunteers as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukrainer.
Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.