MOSCOW, December 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's former nuclear power minister, Yevgeny Adamov, has been delivered to a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, a penitentiary service official said Saturday.
"Adamov was brought to the pre-trial detention center in the early hours of Saturday," the official said. He identified the center as Matrosskaya Tishina, a place where the now jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev were held for more than a year until they were sentenced to eight years in jail.
Adamov, 63, was extradited to Russia Friday night, the Swiss authorities said. He left Zurich at 8pm GMT accompanied by five Russian law-enforcement officers, said Folco Galli, the spokesman for the Swiss justice department.
The ex-minister was arrested in Bern in May at the request of U.S. authorities on accusations of misappropriating $9 million granted to Russia for nuclear safety projects.
On October 3, the Swiss Federal Justice Department announced its decision to extradite the former Russian minister to the U.S.
Adamov's defense team filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Switzerland in Lausanne in November.
On December 22, the Lausanne court upheld the appeal and ruled that the ex-minister be extradited to Russia because it had been the first to submit an extradition request.
Following the court's ruling, the Bush administration said it was disappointed with the decision.
In a statement, Deputy State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli said: "Mr. Adamov has been indicted in the United States for the diversion for his own personal use of U.S. taxpayer funds intended to help the Russian government improve the safety of its nuclear energy facilities."
Ereli said the U.S. was looking to the Russian government "to ensure that justice is done" in the case.
