Should a top Russian archaeologist face trial for digging in occupied Crimea?

A Russian archaeologist detained in Poland is on the centre of an intense debate over the position of museums and consultants and the position they play in Kremlin warfare propaganda.

Alexander Butyagin is beneath arrest in Warsaw, awaiting a Polish court docket resolution on a request to extradite him to Ukraine.

Till now, courts throughout Europe have been reluctant to extradite Russians to Ukraine, citing the European Conference on Human Rights.

Butyagin’s case has divided opinion.

A senior scholar on the Hermitage, Russia’s largest artwork museum in St Petersburg, he has led the museum’s expedition on the web site of Myrmekion in Crimea since 1999, nicely earlier than Russia’s unlawful landgrab of Ukraine’s southern peninsula in 2014.

Supporters argue his work has helped protect Crimea’s historic heritage, however critics say he’s no higher than a looter of Ukrainian historical past benefiting from Russia’s occupation.

Myrmekion dates again to the sixth Century BC, when the Historic Greeks settled in Crimea as democracy was being born in Athens.

Butyagin’s expedition has uncovered lots of of historic cash on the web site, some from Alexander the Nice’s interval within the 4th Century BC.

His expedition continued after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, and a prison case was opened towards him by Ukrainian authorities for working there with out authorisation.

In November 2024, he was positioned on a needed checklist, and in April 2025 a Kyiv court docket ordered his arrest in absentia. Butyagin is accused of unlawful excavations and “unlawful partial destruction” of an archaeological complicated.

Underneath the 2nd Protocol to the Hague Conference for the safety of cultural property within the occasion of armed battle, occupying authorities “shall prohibit and forestall” any archaeological excavations with just a few, slender exceptions.

Each Poland and Ukraine are events to the protocol, whereas Russia isn’t.

Excavations, nevertheless moral, quantity to destruction in the event that they happen with out permission and beneath situations of armed battle, says Evelina Kravchenko, a senior researcher on the Institute of Archaeology of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Butyagin “violated the Hague Conference, and all his issues stem from that”, says Kravchenko, whose committee issued permits for Russian archaeologists to work in Crimea earlier than its annexation.

Butyagin informed Russian media final yr he was “merely doing the work we have devoted our lives to”, and that his important aim was preserving monuments.

The Hermitage press workplace insisted Butyagin’s work complied with all worldwide authorized and moral norms “no matter geopolitical circumstances.”

A senior archaeologist from the museum informed the BBC that Butyagin had adopted the one path obtainable for Russian archaeologists working in Crimea.

“A Russian archaeologist, if he desires to proceed his analysis, has no alternative to acquire permits from the Ukrainian facet, however should get hold of them from the Ministry of Tradition of the Russian Federation,” stated the scholar who spoke on situation of anonymity as he was not authorised to touch upon the case.

A number of Ukrainian sources have additionally accused Butyagin of “looting” objects by taking them to Russia, though these fees are usually not a part of Ukraine’s case.

Each the archaeologist and the Hermitage insist all their finds stay in Crimea as they’re transferred to the Japanese Crimean Museum in Kerch. They argue that objects can solely be relocated to Russia briefly for restoration or as exhibition loans.

Nonetheless, this violates Ukrainian regulation too, as all discoveries should go into Ukraine’s museum fund. Underneath the phrases of Russia’s unlawful annexation, the Japanese Crimean Museum assortment has as a substitute been made a part of Russia’s museum fund.

For the reason that begin of the warfare, a number of European courts have refused Ukraine’s requests to extradite Russians, citing potential dangers beneath the European Conference, which prohibits politically motivated persecution, violations of the correct to a good trial, and torture and inhuman remedy of detainees.

Even when the Polish court docket deciding Butyagin’s case does discover adequate grounds to extradite him, it may not go forward, says Gleb Bogush, a researcher on the Institute for Worldwide Peace and Safety Regulation on the College of Cologne.

Final June, Denmark’s Supreme Courtroom dominated towards extraditing to Ukraine a Russian nationwide suspected of espionage for Moscow.

Gleb Bogush says it’s primarily the Russian state and its officers which might be liable for Crimean excavations, somewhat than Butyagin, as a result of it was lower than archaeologists to determine whether or not the Hermitage expedition ought to proceed.

A senior Hermitage worker informed the BBC that “a area archaeologist can’t be a citizen of the world; he offers with officers, acquiring permits and has to search for funding and volunteers”.

Butyagin has attracted assist not simply from the Kremlin however from Russians who oppose Putin and the warfare.

“The claims being made towards him are absurd,” stated Arseny Vesnin, an exiled journalist and historian. He stated Butyagin had ensured conservation and preservation of the location he was excavating.

Others preserve that artefacts would have been looted by criminals and offered on the black market if Russian archaeologists had refused to work in Crimea.

That doesn’t justify their actions, says Samuel Andrew Hardy, a number one British criminologist specialising within the safety of cultural property in battle zones.

Official excavations don’t all the time cease prison digs from going down, he argues. Some looters goal websites which have already been excavated.

Hardy says all that Butyagin’s supporters are doing is arguing that finally Russia ought to simply be allowed to hold on doing what it desires whatever the warfare.