Russia summons Polish ambassador to demand release of detained archaeologist

MOSCOW, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday it had summoned Poland’s ambassador to protest over the detention of a Russian archaeologist and demand that he be immediately released instead of extradited to Ukraine.

Poland arrested archaeologist Alexander Butyagin last month at the request of Ukraine, which accuses him of conducting unauthorised excavations and plundering historical artefacts in Crimea.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had called in Polish ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski on Monday and told him that the Ukrainian charges were “absurd”.

The statement said that Butyagin, an employee of the renowned Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, had been working in Crimea for decades, and all his finds had been transferred to a museum there.

“It is emphasized that the Russian Federation demands the immediate release of the Russian citizen and that he not be handed over to the Kyiv regime’s punitive machine, which has no resemblance to justice,” it said.

Ukraine says it is defending not just its people and territory but also its cultural heritage in the war against Russia.

It has accused Russia of taking precious historical items from Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and from other parts of the country following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

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