MOSOW/NAPLES, Sept 7 (NNN-ANSA) — A top manager at ODK, a state-run Russian firm that produces engines, has been detained in Italy’s Naples at the request of the United States which accuses him of “economic spying”, Russian media are reporting.
According to the daily Vedomosti, Aleksandr Korshunov, 57, is accused of having illegally appropriated documents from General Electric and information protected by intellectual property rights so as to use them for the Russian PD-14 programme to develop an engine for the MS-21 new civil aircraft.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the arrest was an attempt at “unfair competition”, according to the Interfax news agency. “This doesn’t make relations better” between the US and Russia,” he said.
The manager was stopped by airport police on Aug 30 while he was with his wife, having just got off a flight from Moscow to Naples, Russian media said.
Naples prosecutors, contacted by ANSA, said they had no knowledge of the case.
After being arrested at Capodichino Aiport, Korshunov was taken to Naples’ Poggioreale Prison.
The arrest request was made by the US state of Ohio, Russian media said. He was arrested on an Interpol arrest warrant, source said.
