Ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the People’s Front party, was detained by border guards upon arrival to Geneva airport on Dec. 23 due to the arrest warrant issued for him in Russia, according to his spokeswoman Olga Lappo.
Yatsenyuk was questioned and let go 10 minutes later, Lappo said in a Facebook post.
However, Ukraine’s police said, citing the Swiss Interpol office, that Yatsenyuk wasn’t detained, but rather had “a standard check of documents” in Geneva.
Yatsenyuk was traveling to Switzerland with his wife and daughter when he was stopped at the airport passport control, Lappo said.
Russia opened a criminal investigation against Yatsenyuk in 2015, having charged him with fighting against Russian government forces in Chechnya in 1994-1995. Yatsenyuk has laughed off the charges. In 1994-1995 Yatsenyuk studied law at a university in Chernivtsi in western Ukraine.
“No matter how absurd Russia’s accusations are, they have real consequences,” Lappo wrote.
Ukraine’s police said that Yatsenyuk isn’t on Interpol’s wanted list. Therefore the Swiss authorities had no reason to detain him.
The central office of Interpol denied Russia’s request to put Yatsenyuk on the international wanted list, according to the police statement.
