Russian national Artem Uss, who was detained in Italy on an international arrest warrant, escaped house arrest in Milan and returned to Russia via Slovenia, according to Italian media reports. The STA is still waiting for a response from the Slovenian authorities.

The 40-year-old businessman wanted by the US over a breach of sanctions the West imposed on Russia, escaped on 22 March by car, passing through Slovenia and Serbia, shows a reconstruction of the escape Italian state prosecutors presented on 12 April.

He reached the border with Slovenia, Italy's eastern neighbour, in a few hours, changing several cars and using forged documents. He entered Slovenia near Trieste, proceeding towards Serbia, from where he returned to Russia, allegedly by plane.

The Italian press agency ANSA reported that he was allegedly assisted by six or seven people from Eastern Europe, most likely members of Russian secret services.

While in house arrest, Italian judges allowed Uss to be visited by almost a dozen people, among them diplomats and his sister.

On the day when the prosecutors presented the reconstruction of the escape, Aleksandr Uss, the suspect's father and the governor of the Russian region of Krasnoyarsk, thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin and "friends abroad" for helping his son escape and return to Russia.

Uss was apprehended at Milan's Malpensa airport last October on an arrest warrant issued by the US. He escaped a day before his planned extradition.

He and another four Russians were charged with shipping military technology bought from US manufacturers to Russian buyers, some of which ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine. Uss is also accused of shipping oil from Venezuela to Russia in breach of sanctions, and bank fraud.

A Milan appeal court said in a statement on 13 April it had agreed to the extradition of Uss for smuggling oil, not for smuggling military technologies, citing a lack of evidence.