Russian businessman wanted by Ukraine freed, lawyer says

Russian businessman Yevgeny Kalinin, who had been detained on February 28 during a short business trip to Athens, was released from prison on Wednesday night, his lawyer said.

Kalinin, described in media reports as a 52-year-old energy expert from Russia, was detained at Athens’s International Airport at the request of Ukraine, where he is wanted for alleged tax evasion dating before 2014.

He had been held at the capital's high-security Korydallos jail while Athens waited for Ukraine to send an official extradition request.

The Russian’s lawyer, Yannis Rahiotis, said the release order states that he had been detained “by mistake,” since there was no valid international arrest warrant against him.

Rahiotis had described the arrest as “unjustified and illegal,” while claiming that the case is politically-motivated.

According to reports in the international press, Kalinin was working until March 2014 for the Ukrainian company VETEK, which was accused of tax evasion totalling about 260 million dollars.

He was a supporter of the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, and after an arrest warrant was issued against him, he returned to Russia.