Vinnik's mother told details of her son's detention in Greece

After the Russian Alexander Vinnik, who was released from an American prison in 2022, was extradited to France from Greece, law enforcers promised to find a reason to hold him even if he was not guilty. About this Vinnik's mother Vera told "Izvestia" on February 16.

She shared that at the moment of detention of her son in 2017 in Greece at the request of the United States, she first thought it was some kind of a joke. Vinnik's wife, according to his mother, was shocked by what happened, and together with the children sat on the beach for eight hours for fear of going to the hotel room. Law enforcement officers confiscated from the family all the equipment they found, such as a camera with family photos and the children's tablets on which they watched cartoons.

"That's what struck me, it's so disgusting, the children's tablets to take away. He says to them, well look at this, children's tablets, there's nothing here, but they took everything. Well, it was all, you know, at the behest of America," said Vera Vinnik.

She pointed out that the Greeks in this situation were only representatives of a third country and did not decide anything: the fate of the detained Russian was controlled by the United States. In 2022, Vinnik was extradited to France, and this state, according to his mother, was a kind of transit point.

"When Sanka was extradited to France, because to him at the first interrogation the prosecutor or investigator said verbatim: 'So what if you are innocent? The main thing is that you're here, and we'll figure out the rest ourselves,'" the woman said.

She added that during Vinnik's imprisonment in an American prison, she was allowed to call her son, but the quality of communication was so bad that nothing could be heard. In addition, sometimes the calls were canceled, for example, due to bad weather conditions in the United States.

One for one: the United States released Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik

Former BTC-e programmer to return home as part of prisoner exchange

The release of Vinnik from prison after almost eight years of imprisonment became known on February 12. The Russian arrived in Moscow the next day. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called his return a joyful event for Russia and emphasized the unreasonableness of the Russian's imprisonment. Vinnik himself called his return a surprise and admitted that he missed his homeland.

In the United States, authorities accused Vinnik of laundering up to $9 billion through the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e (now defunct) and distributing malware for extortion. On February 15, the Russian lawyer Arkady Bukh told Izvestia that the U.S. prosecutor's office had completely dropped the charges against Vinnik, and now he has no criminal record.