Polish Authorities Arrest Russian Archaeologist from the Hermitage Museum over Illegal Destruction of \u201cMermecion\u201d Ancient City<\/p>\n
Polish authorities have arrested a prominent Russian archaeologist, Alexander B., who works at the renowned Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. He is wanted by Ukraine for allegedly conducting illegal excavations and partially destroying the archaeological site of the ancient city \u201cMermecion\u201d in Kerch.<\/p>\n
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General\u2019s Office, Alexander B. serves as head of the department responsible for ancient artifacts of the Northern Black Sea region at the Hermitage Museum. Ukrainian prosecutors accuse him of carrying out unauthorized excavations near Kerch between February 2014 and November 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of these excavations, between 2014 and 2019, he caused partial illegal destruction of the archaeological complex of the ancient city of Mermecion,\u201d said Piotr Skiba, spokesperson for the Warsaw Prosecutor\u2019s Office, citing information provided by Ukrainian authorities.<\/p>\n
Ukraine estimates the damage at approximately 201.6 million Ukrainian hryvnias (around $4.77 million).<\/p>\n
Russia occupied Kerch in February 2014 and annexed it. The Russian Foreign Ministry identified the man as Alexander Putiagin, an employee of the State Hermitage Museum, and condemned his arrest. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called it \u201ca complete legal injustice\u201d and said Russia would seek to protect its citizen through diplomatic channels.<\/p>\n
The ancient city of Mermecion, dating back to early Greek settlement in the 6th century BCE, is located in present-day Kerch.<\/p>\n
Skiba stated that Alexander B. was arrested in Poland on December 4 and later interrogated by Warsaw prosecutors, during which he refused to provide any explanations. The Ukrainian authorities issued an extradition request for Alexander B. in November.<\/p>\n
According to the extradition request, he \u201csought to recover movable objects from cultural heritage sites without the necessary permits to conduct excavations at the archaeological complex of the ancient city of Mermecion in Kerch\u2026 and carried out illegal excavations at this cultural heritage site since the beginning of the temporary occupation of Kerch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Putiagin had previously been invited to give lectures on Pompeii in Warsaw and several other European cities.<\/p>\n
The Constitutional Court in Warsaw approved his detention at the Warsaw-Bia\u0142o\u0142\u0119ka detention center for 40 days until January 19, pending further proceedings regarding the extradition request. The Russian embassy in Poland has been informed and is providing consular assistance, according to Skiba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polish Authorities Arrest Russian Archaeologist from the Hermitage Museum over Illegal Destruction of \u201cMermecion\u201d Ancient City Polish authorities have arrested a prominent Russian archaeologist, Alexander B., who works at the renowned Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. He is wanted by Ukraine for allegedly conducting illegal excavations and partially destroying the archaeological site of the ancient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}