A 47-year-old Austrian man, Joachim Assenheim, has been arrested by Venezuelan police in the Turkish Embassy in Caracas, where he has been living for nearly a decade. Mr Assenheim originally entered the Embassy back in November 2009, claiming that the Venezuelan Government was about to arrest him and extradite him to Russia, where he is wanted for publishing footage on his site -
Web-Hinweisgeber (Web-Whistleblower) - showing Russian servicemen committing atrocities and war crimes against unarmed civilians during the 2nd Chechen War.
Mr Assenheim was dragged from the Embassy early in the morning by the
Policía Nacional Bolivariana - Nicholas Maduro's loyal police force -, after the Turkish Government, under huge pressure from Moscow, finally revoked his Turkish citizenship, which Ankara had granted back in late 2015, at a time when relations between Turkey and Russia had soured. Although speculation had been rife that Mr Assanheim was about to be evicted and arrested, the indictment itself took some by surprise, since it does not focus on his publishing of the footage, but rather on his alleged involvement in procuring it.
However, according to a US State Department official, this is merely a fig leaf, intended to cover what will happen to Mr Assanheim if and when he is extradited to Moscow:
"The only reason they've chosen not to indict Mr Assenheim for publishing the material, is because a number of other media outlets around the world also published it, for which we can all be very thankful for their role in exposing the war crimes committed by Russian forces. If the Russian Government were to go after him on these grounds, they'd face internal pressure to go after the other journalists that published the same material. However, nobody should be fooled by the limited nature of this indictment. We all know that if Mr Assanheim is extradited to Russia, his trial will be held in secret, with no access to legal representation, and you can be sure that they will add to the charges and make sure that he never sees the light of day again."
The extradition treaty between Moscow and Caracas means that the Putin regime doesn't need to present any evidence against Mr Assanheim - it only needs to make allegations. This means that Moscow can ask for, and expect to receive, anyone it dislikes from Venezuelan territory, regardless of whether there is any actual evidence against them, and also irrespective of whether their alleged crime was committed in Russia.
According to experts on International Law, this creates a highly dangerous situation. It also goes to show the lengths that the Russian Government is prepared to go to cover up its crimes and ensure that nobody who dares to reveal them can feel safe.
Comment: It would also seem to help to name your cat using a high pitched sound at the end of it: