French court approves Lithuania's request for extradition of ex-banker Antonov

PARIS, April 3. /TASS/. The Court of Appeal in Rennes, France, has granted Lithuania’s request for the extradition of Russian Vladimir Antonov, former head of Snoras Bank, AFP news agency quoted his lawyer Henry Ermeneux as saying. "The court has decided to extradite him to the Lithuanian authorities. He did not accept the argument that there is a threat to Mr. Antonov's life in Eastern Europe," the lawyer said. Antonov owned 68% of shares of Lithuania’s fifth largest commercial bank Snoras. His partner, Lithuanian Raimondas Baranauskas, owned 25%. In 2011, the bank was nationalized, declared insolvent and subject to liquidation. The bankers claimed that the destruction of the bank and their persecution were political in nature. At the time of the bank's collapse, Baranauskas and Antonov were in Great Britain. In 2015, the country's courts ruled that the businessmen could be transferred to Lithuania under its European arrest warrant, since there was no reason to believe that their trial would be biased. Antonov and Baranauskas left Great Britain without notifying the local authorities. In 2017, the Lithuanian parliament amended the laws to try the people suspected of committing especially large-scale financial crimes in absentia. The court sentenced Antonov and Baranauskas to 10.5 years in prison each and ordered them to pay 375.18 million euros in damages. The Delfi portal reported that Antonov was detained in western France on December 9. A European arrest warrant for him was issued in December 2025 on charges of corruption, money laundering and bankruptcy with a total loss of at least 478 million euros. In the past, Antonov had already been detained in London in 2011 on Lithuania’s request, but was released on bail.