The arrested French cyclist Sekhili told about his journey

French cyclist Sofiane Sehili, who was arrested in Primorye for illegally crossing the Russian state border, said in an interview with RIA Novosti on October 11 that he did not choose Vladivostok as the finish point of his cycling trip.

"I thought: "Wow, that sounds like a really really cool trip." This idea has been in my head for a long time <...> I kept putting it off, and this year everything finally worked out, and that's why I decided to finally break this record that I had been hatching in my head for a long time. I decided to ride a bike across Eurasia because I liked the idea that I could ride thousands of kilometers and nothing could stop me, and you only stop when you see the sea, and there's no way on," Sekhili said.

According to him, he put everything on hold and quit his job. He used the app to create an approximate route for his multi-day trip. However, as the Frenchman noted, he did not spend much time planning the route, preferring flexibility.

"I didn't spend a lot of time planning because I prefer flexibility, I like to be able to change my route at any time: where to turn off, where to go," he said.

Sekhili stressed that Vladivostok was chosen as the final destination of the trip, as it was the finish of last year's record.

"A country's openness should not turn into vulnerability"

Co—Chairman of the Russian Bar Association Vladimir Pligin - on migration legislation, protection of the rights of Russians abroad and fraud

On September 6, French cyclist Sofiane Sehili was detained for illegally crossing the border in Vladivostok. It was clarified that since July of this year, the cyclist traveled through Tajikistan, Mongolia and China.

On September 18, Vladimir Naidin, chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission (POC) of Primorsky Krai, announced that a cyclist from France who had illegally crossed the border was now in a pre-trial detention center. According to him, the detainee said that he wanted to cross the Russian-Chinese border. Due to a misunderstanding, the man was not allowed to ride his bike at the checkpoint, so he decided to "cut off" in another place.

On October 9, the Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint of Sekhili's defense.

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