The criminal police of Finland have started a preliminary investigation against Yan Petrovsky, one of the leaders of the Russian subversive-assault intelligence group "Rusich". Petrovskyi is suspected of committing terrorist crimes in Ukraine.
This is reported by the Finnish publication Yle.
A decision on whether Finland will open a terrorism investigation could be made as early as next week. Currently, the police are studying the materials that Ukraine sent to Finland.
Such an investigation will have an exceptional character, since the suspect is not a citizen of Finland, and he committed the alleged crimes outside the country. Finnish law allows such cases to be investigated.
- 36-year-old Jan Petrovsky was detained in July at the Helsinki airport when he was about to fly to Nice. He came to Finland under the pseudonym Voyislav Torden, and thanks to his wifeʼs Finnish study visa, he received a residence permit. He is wanted in Ukraine on suspicion of participating in terrorist activities — for participating in hostilities in Donbas in 2014-2015. He is included in the sanctions lists of the USA, the European Union and other countries that support Ukraine — but under his real name.
- The Ukrainian authorities demanded to extradite Petrovskyi, but on December 8 the Supreme Court of Finland refused to extradite him. The court also ordered the release of Petrovskyi, but the border guards immediately took him into custody from the detention center.