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Austria finally agrees to extradite alleged Russian gang boss

Austria will extradite the alleged boss of a Russian crime gang wanted by Moscow for a string of murders after a court rejected his appeal on Tuesday.

Austria finally agrees to extradite alleged Russian gang boss
The Palace of Justice in Vienna. Photo: Gugerell/Wikimedia Commons

The ruling ends the long-running legal saga of Aslan Gagiev, who was immediately taken into custody, police in Vienna said.

The 46-year-old was first detained at a Vienna train station in January 2015 on an international arrest warrant, but was freed on bail in February last year.

Russian authorities accuse Gagiev's gang of at least six murders.

Those killed include the deputy vice-president of the Russian republic of North Ossetia, a deputy public prosecutor, a mayor and a chief of police.

Gagiev denied wrongdoing and said Russia's attempt to have him extradited was politically motivated.

After several different rulings, Austria's highest court put his extradition to Russia on ice in 2015 because of concerns about how he would be treated there.

This was in part because Russia's constitutional court had ruled that Russian laws take precedence over judgements by the European Court of Human Rights.

However, Vienna's high court said Tuesday that Gagiev's extradition was legal after all.

The decision cannot be appealed.

READ ALSO: Alleged Russian mobster nabbed at Vienna train station 

RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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