This was Russia today Thursday, January 15, 2026

Howdy, folks. Today, I review the arrest in Poland of a Russian archaeologist wanted by Ukrainian officials for conducting illegal excavations in occupied Crimea. Read on for details on the FSB’s operations in Serbia, Zelensky’s latest dispute with Trump, and the expulsion of a British diplomat from Moscow. Yours, Kevin.

A Warsaw arrest brings the war for history to a head as Ukraine seeks to prosecute a Russian archaeologist for digs in Crimea

In early December, Alexander Butyagin, a prominent archaeologist from the Hermitage Museum, was arrested in Warsaw following an extradition request from Ukraine. His arrest came as a shock to many, given that he had continued to tour Europe for lectures throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, operating under what colleagues described as a naive belief that his scientific work insulated him from the geopolitical conflict. The case highlights the volatile intersection of archaeological science and national sovereignty, more than a decade after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and almost four years into the full-scale war. Investigators have charged Butyagin with the “deliberate illegal destruction” of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, estimating damages at nearly $5 million for excavations conducted without Kyiv’s authorization. Meanwhile, Russian officials and Butyagin’s employers at the Hermitage denounce the charges as a “political provocation” and a “legal sham,” asserting that he strictly adhered to professional ethics and obtained permits from Moscow’s occupation authorities in Crimea.

What Poland does with Butyagin could set a precedent for international norms regarding cultural property in occupied territories. Under the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention, archaeological excavations on occupied land are prohibited unless strictly required for the preservation or inventory of cultural property. While Butyagin’s defense maintains that his team’s finds, such as a million-dollar cache of gold coins from the era of Alexander the Great, were properly transferred to local Crimean museums, officials in Kyiv argue that any work conducted under the Russian Culture Ministry’s remit constitutes a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. This situation is further complicated by the fact that Russian archaeologists cannot legally obtain Ukrainian permits without risking treason charges.

Butyagin’s case also draws attention to how the Kremlin has mobilized archaeologists to transform Crimea’s historical landscape into a tool for state ideology. Scholars in Ukraine point to the development of a “historical-cultural center of Christianity” amid the ruins of Chersonesus. This “Russian Mecca,” as Putin described it, was built during a massive construction project that Ukrainian archaeologists denounced as “vandalism” and a “barbaric crime.” The site, which once served as a quiet area for scientific study, is now reportedly burdened by heavy infrastructure that creates “vibrational impacts” and threatens ancient walls. As a representative of Russian science on advisory councils that facilitated these controversial developments, Butyagin bears some responsibility for this damage, his critics say.

The debate surrounding Butyagin’s arrest has polarized Russia’s scientific community. Some colleagues argue that scientists have a moral duty to “conserve and save” artifacts regardless of politics, while others contend that working in occupied territories after 2014, and especially after 2022, is ethically and legally impossible. Sociologist Dmitry Dubrovsky told Meduza that the charge of “destruction” is factually incorrect, arguing that Butyagin merely conducted excavations. He suggested that the wording is a strategic maneuver by Ukrainian authorities to ensure their case meets international extradition requirements. While his supporters view him as a dedicated scholar who became a victim of an “inverted moral universe,” his detractors see his work as a tool of propaganda that assisted in the theft of more than “15 million pieces” of Ukrainian cultural heritage. Meduza notes that Butyagin wrote a poem in 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, that betrayed his awareness of the risks ahead. The final stanza is especially prophetic: “Ready for the cell and the beggar’s bag, I do my duty for Russia, For in her I dwell.” 

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