War criminals from Kremlin-controlled terrorist groups who killed Ukrainians travel to European countries under different names. The occupiers hope that in this way they can deceive foreign intelligence services and Interpol, but everything turned out to be not so simple.
A killer with a residence permit in a NATO country
One of the most high-profile cases of recent times was the detention in Finland of a Russian neo-Nazi from the sabotage and assault reconnaissance group “Rusich” Yan Petrovsky.
He was “stopped” before taking off from Finland’s main international airport, Helsinki-Vantaa, a day after he left Russia. Moreover, on suspicion not of war crimes, but of violating immigration laws.
Vigilant Finnish border guards decided to search their databases with a photo of a man with a Russian passport and a residence permit in Finland. Then it turned out that this is Yan Petrovsky (also known as “Slavyan” from the DSRG “Rusich”), who is under Western sanctions and who is wanted by Ukraine. Previously, Petrovsky was banned from entering Norway and the Czech Republic. This ban applied to the entire Schengen area, which includes Finland.
Petrovsky was assigned to a temporary accommodation center, where people who applied for political asylum are kept.
It turned out that the Russian neo-Nazi actually had a residence permit in Finland for a period of one year, but under the name Vojislav Torden. A month later he was transferred to a prison in the city of Vantaa and the Russian embassy was notified about this.
“Petrovsky hoped to get away with it: he didn’t even turn to the Russian Embassy for help so that everything would be quiet. I was counting on the help of a local lawyer. And he panicked when the threat of extradition to Ukraine arose and he was sent to prison,” said an employee of one of the Ukrainian special services.
According to him, it was only at the end of August that a Russian neo-Nazi contacted the embassy and “gave the go-ahead to his comrades to create a stir online.” This was followed by a statement from the DSRG “Rusich” that until Petrovsky was extradited to Russia, their group “stops performing any combat missions.”
“They wanted to leave, they wanted to come. The contracts ended a long time ago, we fulfilled our obligations during this time (and we are not obliged to anyone beyond the agreed norm),” the terrorists’ Telegram channel says.
A huge scandal erupted in Finland: after all, Petrovsky appears on Western sanctions lists and is wanted by Ukraine due to numerous crimes in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014-2015.
“Local forums were simply full of furious messages from Finns who were outraged: how is it that Russian occupiers are calmly walking around the territory of their country (and NATO countries). Moreover, they have a residence permit here,” Ukrainian Evgeniya, who lives in Finland, told OBOZREVATEL.
Now the Finnish government and authorities are trying to find an explanation for how this was possible and how such situations can be prevented. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the incident prompted Finland to assess border threats.
Finnish media report that “improving information exchange between authorities has come to the fore,” which will prevent Russian criminals from obtaining visas. There is also talk about new restrictions on the issuance of visas.
Meanwhile, Petrovsky, whose extradition was requested by Ukraine in order to be tried for numerous crimes, directly from prison turned to the Finnish authorities for political asylum. True, the terrorist can hardly seriously count on this; apparently, he simply intends to drag out the matter. The hope is that while the request is being considered, he will not be extradited to Ukraine.
The Office of the Prosecutor General reported that back in 2016, Yan Petrovsky was informed of suspicion of his participation in a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) - for this he faces up to 15 years in prison.
In particular, Petrovsky and the second founder of Rusich, Alexey Milchakov, were photographed next to the burning bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. And already during a full-scale war, they called for killing Ukrainian children, since they “grow up and take revenge for their parents.”
Also, the Russian neo-Nazi previously admitted to the murder of six Ukrainian prisoners of war. They were captured by the invaders in the battle near Lugansk on September 5, 2014.
Close cooperation between Ukraine and Europol played a role in Petrovsky’s transfer to Vantaa prison. The Office of the Prosecutor General said that they received information about the possible deportation of Petrovsky to the Russian Federation, and this would make it impossible to extradite him to Ukraine. Therefore, on August 15, 2023, prosecutors sent all the necessary information to Finland to ensure the arrest. Now there is hope for the extradition of the Russian criminal to Ukraine, which, of course, he is very afraid of.
Who is eager to go to Europe?
It is a mistake to think that Yan Petrovsky is the only Russian war criminal and terrorist who managed to enter Europe. The occupiers who killed Ukrainians receive new passports in Russia and Belarus under different names, which, of course, do not appear in the search databases.
This was previously stated by the Belarusian oppositionist, head of the People's Anti-Crisis Management, deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet of the Republic of Belarus Pavel Latushko. According to his information, the Wagnerites, in particular, are receiving new passports.
According to interlocutors in Ukrainian intelligence, despite the fact that there is no need to talk about mass scale, it is nevertheless a serious threat to European countries.
“If some criminals just want to get lost, others can legalize themselves in one country or another, and then they are used to commit terrorist attacks and sabotage,” says the officer.
Considering how Russian special services and military intelligence have stepped up their work in Europe, there is no doubt about this. Moreover, the main goal of the aggressor country is to prevent the provision of military assistance to Ukraine.
