Exclusive: Inside a Russian bid to free Horațiu Potra, a mercenary held in Dubai accused of conspiring to ‘overthrow constitutional order’ in Romania
Russian figures close to the Kremlin are mounting a last-minute attempt to halt the extradition from Dubai of a Romanian-French mercenary wanted in Romania for plotting a coup, the Guardian can reveal.
Horațiu Potra, a shadowy former French Foreign Legionnaire, was arrested at Dubai airport on 24 September alongside his son and nephew as they prepared to board a flight to Moscow. Romanian investigators had accused the men of conspiring with Potra’s ally, the far-right politician Călin Georgescu, to “overthrow the constitutional order”.
Romanian officials have confirmed Potra’s arrest in Dubai and said they were working with UAE authorities to secure his extradition for trial in Romania, while the country’s general prosecutor said in interviews with local media that Potra was thought to be seeking asylum in Russia.
The effort to block his extradition is being led by Igor Spivak, the head of the Russian Middle East Society, a group with close ties to the Russian foreign ministry, and by Igor Kalinin, a Moldovan-born Russian proxy who fled to Moscow and is recruiting Moldovans to fight in Ukraine alongside Russian forces.
