MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) – France has approved the extradition of an internationally wanted criminal to Russia, the first such extradition in three years, a representative of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti Wednesday.
"On March 8, 2012, drunken Alexey Kaminsky in Omsk [in southwestern Siberia], taking advantage of the helpless state of a seven-year girl, sexually assaulted her,” Marina Gridneva said, adding that the decision was the first approval of a Russian extradition request in three years.
The suspected pedophile escaped from investigators and was put on a federal wanted list in April 2012, and later on an international wanted list. He was apprehended in March in France.
Russian investigators have also sought the extradition from France of Alexei Kuznetsov, the former finance minister of Moscow Region.
A French court in January ordered his extradition to Russia, but later decided to reconsider the decision.
Russian investigators are ready to charge Kuznetsov with more than 150 counts of fraud resulting in total losses of 11 billion rubles ($330 million).
The official was detained on July 5, 2013, in the southern French city of Saint Tropez. The Russian Interior Ministry has said that he had several fake passports on him at the time of his detention.
His wife, New York real estate mogul and socialite Janna Bullock, has also been put on the international wanted list on suspicion of being Kuznetsov’s accomplice.
