Armenia detains Russian man in cross-border cybercrime case

A Russian citizen has been detained in Armenia at the request of foreign authorities in connection with a computer fraud investigation, according to sources cited by Russia's state news agency.

The sources said Alexander Yermakov, from the Russian city of Omsk, was arrested at Yerevan's Zvartnots International Airport in June. They did not disclose which country's authorities had requested his detention.

The reports follow claims circulating on Russian Telegram channels that Yermakov has spent the past two weeks in a pre-trial detention centre in Armenia after being detained at the airport.

According to the reports, citing Yermakov's relatives, he was allegedly mistaken for another man with the same name who is wanted by Interpol at the request of the United States on hacking-related charges.

His family maintains that the detained Yermakov has no connection to the information technology sector and points out that his patronymic differs from that of the individual sought by Interpol.

Armenian law enforcement authorities had not commented on the case at the time of publication, and no official confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the detention was immediately available.