France extradites Karachay-Cherkessia native accused of terrorism to Russia

Ruslan Botashev, a native of Karachay-Cherkessia, whose extradition from France the Prosecutor General's Office had been demanding for several years, has been extradited to Russia.

Russian security forces consider Ruslan Botashev a militant of the Islamic State terrorist organization, which is banned in Russia. According to them, Botashev has been a participant in military operations in Syria since 2015.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced on August 13 that Ruslan Botashev would be extradited from France. A native of Karachay-Cherkessia is charged with training for the purposes of terrorist activity and participation in a terrorist organization (Article 205.3 and Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code). In Russia, Botashev was arrested in absentia, and since March 2016, he has been on the international wanted list.

According to security officials, in November and December 2014, he was trained in military affairs at the Muaskar-Sabri militant camp in Syria, and since January 2015, he has been a member of one of the armed formations within the Islamic State*. In this capacity, until March 2015, Botashev was engaged in guarding IS* engineering units and mining underground tunnels in Aleppo, “and also defended the city from government armed forces that stormed it,” according to a statement on the Prosecutor General’s Office website.

Russia has sent a request to France for extradition of Botashev after he was detained in September 2018 on the territory of this country. At the same time, the French side declared its readiness to extradite him only in July 2025. ““After three years of evading the joint fight against crime, the competent authorities of France satisfied the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office,” the department’s Telegram channel noted.

Botashev was escorted to the Paris airport, where he was handed over to employees of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service and the Interpol bureau. He was delivered to Moscow in transit through Turkey.

Ruslan Botashev He is 47 years old and is a native of the village of Marukha in the Zelenchuksky District of Karachay-Cherkessia (at the time of Botashev’s birth in 1978, it was part of the Stavropol Territory), according to an entry in the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring.

* a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.