A top manager at ODK, a
state-run Russian firm that produces engines, has been detained
in 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 August 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.
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