On September 14, Julio Prieto crossed into Russia
despite he was prohibited from crossing the state border because he
did not have a valid visa.
Russian court bailiffs on Monday deported a 29-year-old American
citizen, Julio Prieto, from Novosibirsk to New York on charges of
illegally entering into Russia.
The US national who came to Russia in search of a better life
said at Novosibirsk’s Tolmachevo airport prior to his departure
that he was deeply disappointed with the Russians’ cold welcome, a
source at the press office of the Russian Federal Bailiffs Service
for the Novosibirsk region told.
"Julio was greatly disappointed. He said he had wanted to stay
in Russia, which he liked at first. However, the initial Russian
hospitality he sought after, he failed to get. So he grew deeply
disappointed," the source said.
Julio Prieto was deported from Tolmachevo airport on the
Novosibirsk-Moscow-Dublin-New York flight at 06:25 (02:25 Moscow
time) on Monday. Court bailiffs escorted him from a temporary
detention center for foreign nationals. Russia paid for the
foreigner’s flight from the state budget.
On October 26, the Karasuksky district court of the Novosibirsk
region found Prieto guilty of illegally crossing the Russian border
and imposed a 7,000-ruble ($106.65) fine on him. However, the
American was immediately exempt from paying the fine because he had
stayed in custody in the course of investigation. Nonetheless, the
court imposed another 2,000-ruble ($30.4) fine on Prieto the same
day for violating Russian migration laws and ordered to deport him
from the country.
According to investigators, on September 14, Prieto arrived from
Kazakhstan at the Pavlovka multiway automobile checkpoint in the
Karasuksky district on the Russian-Kazakhstani border. The
foreigner was prohibited from crossing the state border because he
did not have a valid visa. Prierto crossed into Russia using a
roundabout way, which resulted in his arrest by local Russian
border guards.