Bulgarian court has approved the extradition of a Russian citizen Alexei Alchin back to Russia. Alchin protested against the war in Ukraine by burning his Russian passport.

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  1. >**The Varna Regional Court in Bulgaria has approved the extradiction of Russian citizen Alexei Alchin back to Russia. The extradition request was submitted by the Russian federation, according to whom Alchin has recently been charged with unpaid VAT for 2015, when he had a private business in Russia before leaving the very same year.**
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    > Alchin arrived in Bulgaria five years ago. At present he has legal status and a private practice in Bulgaria as a martial arts instructor; he’s also a volunteer, helping Ukrainian refugees. While residing in Bulgaria in the past, he has been back to Russia numerous times without any problems.
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    > His problems started at the start of the war in Ukraine, when during a protest in Varna against the war, Alchin publicly burned his Russian passport. In the middle of June of this year, Alchin was arrested in his home and remained under house arrest until the 2nd of August, when he was detained indefinitely.
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    > The Russian charge indictment, for which Alexei Alchin has been detained, is for tax evasion amounting to 282 million Roubles. According to Russian prosecution, Alchin signed untruthful documents as a head of a company back in 2015. Under Russian penal code, he can be jailed for up to six years. According to Russian authorities, Alchin was in hiding since then, which has necessitated the involvement of Interpol.
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    > The trial for the extradition request continued for about two hours. Before the trial, people protested before the court in Varna, claiming the extradition request is based solely on political motives. One of the main arguments for approving extradition requests is the presence of ‘double indictability’, according to which the criminal act for which a person’s extradition is being requested must also be punishable under Bulgarian penal code. This was noted by the court in the motives section of today’s ruling.
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    > Furthermore, according to the court, the accusation against Alchin is still within the statute of limitations. The court also notes that ‘double punishability’ does not mean the Bulgarian court has to prove that a crime has been committed – instead, it’s up to the legal system of the country requesting extradition to prove that once their citizen has been extradited. In other words, the Bulgarian court did not judge whether Alexei Alchin has committed a crime.
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    > Although Alchin has been vocal about his opposition to the war in Ukraine, the Varna prosecution does not believe there are reasons to think Alchin will be politically persecuted in Russia.
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    >*“In the documents sent to the Bulgarian authorities, the vice-chief prosecutor of the Russian Federation Pyotr Gorodov guarantees that the request for extradition does not aim to discriminate the individual based on his political beliefs, political actions, or race and ethnicity. The Russian Federation promises that Alexei A. would be granted access to all legally defined ways of defence, including public defenders; the Federation also promises that he will not be subjected to torture, unusually cruel punishment, or degrading or humiliating acts (in accordance to the International pact for civil and political rights from 1966),”* states the Regional court in Varna.
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    >**From the letter which the Ministry of Justice has sent to the Public Public Prosecutor’s office, it is visible that
    the extradition papers were delivered to the Ministry of Justice “by hand, in person” by a member of the Russian Federation consulate.**
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    > In the same later the Ministry “reminds” the prosecution office that at a justice and internal affairs council in Brussels on the 3rd and 4th of March 2022, members of the European Union stated that the actions of Russia are in such a gross violation of international law that it was suitable to outright dismiss extradition requests by Russia and Belarus. Member states still reserved the right to consider extradition requests on an individual basis.
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    >Despite this “reminder” by the Ministry of Internal affairs, prosecutor R. Georgieva from the Varna Prosecution Office still moved forward with the process of extradition.
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    > **“Alexei Alchin is being prosecuted for his political stance”** is the main argument of the Russian’s defence. Alchin himself has officially requested political asylum in Bulgaria after he was arrested back in July, but his request is yet to be processed. Bulgarian prosecution does not believe there’s enough reason to assume he will be politically persecuted back in Russia.
    The magistrates in Varna state that “there are no legal reasons for the extradition of 46-year-old Alchin to be denied” because the Russian Ministry of Justice has declared that “the request has nothing to do with political persecution … or the political views of the persecuted individual”. The court decision can be appealed within 7 days. Alchin remains in custody until “handing it over to the relevant competent authorities of Russia”.

    Some context for non-Bulgarian readers:

    The prosecution in Bulgaria is one of the biggest issues in Bulgarian politics. The current chief prosecutor, Ivan Geshev, has been criticised by most political parties in Bulgaria, as well as many European authorities.

    The last government of Bulgaria was led by the ‘Continuing the Change’ party, which publicly waged war on Geshev’s office, but failed to dethrone the GERB-appointed magistrate from his position. A few months ago one of the government coalition members, the TV-late-night-host-turned-populist-politician-led ‘There’s such a people’ left the government, which began a political crisis that ultimately resulted in the resignation of prime minister Kiril Petkov and his ministers. This happened a few days after 70 Russian diplomats were expelled from Bulgaria, which led many to believe that the government fell because of Russian influence.

    The government officially stepped down last week, and a new provisional government was appointed by the controversial president Rumen Radev, who has long been criticised for his ties with Russia.

    One of the first acts of the new government, led by Gulub Donev (his first name literally translated to Pigeon, thus you may’ve observed many pigeon-themed memes), was to halt the construction of a gas interconnector which would have allowed Bulgaria to import gas from Azerbaijan, and to hint at possible renewal of imports from Russia.

    The arrest of Alexei Alchin happened literally a couple of days after the new provisional government came into power. In addition to the suspicious coincidences, it should be noted that Varna is notorious for its rampant corruption and massive Russian influence, with a huge Russian expats diaspora and a Russian consulate bigger than most foreign missions which was forced to close only after 70 diplomats were expelled.

    What happens next remains to be seen. I do not have hopes that Alchin will be able to defend himself during the appeal process, and I suspect he’ll be sent back to Russia, never to be seen again. In my personal opinion, the provisional government is absolutely Russian-backed, and it’s impossible for me to imagine a scenario in which they step up to defend Alexein Alchin from the prosecution and deny the Russian extradition orders through some legal loopholes (if anything, they’ll use their status as a provisional government to excuse their inaction, despite it not preventing them from halting the interconnector which was a matter of national security).

    At this point, Alchin’s best chances might be for foreign media outlets, especially English-language ones, to pick up his extradition as news.

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