hermitage museum

Butyagin case represents broader political campaign - Hermitage Museum head

The director of the State Hermitage Museum says the detention of Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin in Poland, where he could face extradition to Ukraine, is part of a broader political campaign that has included sanctions against prominent Russian scholars and heads of leading archaeological institutions. Mikhail Piotrovsky stated that archaeologists and museum staff are becoming targets of what he called a system of kidnappings, hostage-taking, manipulation, blackmail, and lies that has replaced standard legal procedures.