Vladimir Jovancic wasn’t shy about his affinity for the criminal underworld: the nickname for his TikTok account, where he posted videos of Orthodox churches, motorboats, and expensive fur coats, is the Russian phrase "thief-in-law" -- a pop-culture nod to the storied universe of Russian organized crime.
At 9:30 on the morning of February 17, 2023, Jovancic, a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina, set out driving from the Italian town of Desenzano del Garda, on the southern shore of Lake Garda. His two mobile phones pinged cell towers in the region as he drove to the Milan suburb of Basiglio, just over four hours away.
It was an early step in a plot that culminated in an audacious jailbreak: an escape from house arrest for a Russian named Artyom Uss, who was wanted by U.S. authorities on charges of smuggling sensitive technology used in Russian weapons in Ukraine. Uss's father was a powerful Russian governor with ties to the state oil giant Rosneft and a personal connection to President Vladimir Putin.
Uss's escape, the day after an Italian court cleared his extradition to the United States, was deeply unpleasant for the Italian authorities; Italy, one lawmaker said, "embarrassed itself internationally." The U.S. government has put out a $7 million reward for his capture.
But the intricacy of his escape also offered a window into the operations of a transnational organized crime group, rooted in Serbia, and hints of how well-connected Russians may in fact have relied on intelligence agencies to spring the wanted businessman from custody and smuggle him out of reach of the Italian and American authorities.
Italian prosecutors have implicated six people in the plot. Three are in custody -- one in Croatia, one in Slovenia, both awaiting extradition to the United States, and another in Italy. The other three remain at-large.
Using investigative materials and surveillance video provided by Italian authorities, as well as evidence filed by prosecutors in the United States and two other countries, RFE/RL reconstructed how Uss fled a gated community in suburban Milan, crossed three borders, and ended up flying home to Russia from Belgrade.
January 2023
Uss, 41, was indicted by a U.S. grand jury in September 2022 -- accused, along with a Russian business partner and four other people, of using a German company to smuggle military and dual-use technologies to Russian tycoons and companies in violation of Western sanctions -- including the kinds of electronics that later showed up on the battlefield in Ukraine.
About a month later, on October 17, 2022, he was arrested at the Milan airport on a U.S. warrant. Five weeks after that, a Milan court released him to home confinement rather than keeping him in jail, a move that caused concern among U.S. officials and, after his escape, sparked angry criticism from lawmakers.
Uss was no stranger to Italy. His family had real estate holdings there, including hotels, and he reportedly owned a winery on Sardinia. Uss's business partner, Yuriy Orekhov, who was charged in the same 2022 U.S. indictment, was arrested in Germany and remains in German custody pending extradition.
In January 2023, Uss recruited Jovancic "and other individuals affiliated with a Serbian organized crime group...to help him flee to Russia in the event extradition was granted," the U.S. Justice Department said in describing an indictment laying out the charges against him.
That same month, Jovancic, 53, met Uss's wife, a model named Maria Yagodina, at a hotel in Milan. The two agreed on a scheme whereby Jovancic would pretend to deliver groceries to Uss's residence, in order not to raise suspicions.
Yagodina gave Jovancic a cell phone and a down payment of 10,000 euros, the Justice Department said, and he was later provided with a keycard to get into the home.
Uss was serving his house arrest in an upscale gated community called Borgo Di Vione, in Basiglio, on Milan’s southern outskirts. A collection of terra cotta-roofed villas and detached townhouses with manicured lawns, the complex markets itself as a family friendly location, with an on-site restaurant, a swimming pool, spa, and other amenities.
Italian police said they checked on Uss multiple times daily, but a lawmaker disputed that claim at a parliament session after his escape.
February 18, 2023
The day after Jovancic’s phone registered on the network in Basiglio, following the drive from Desenzano del Garda, it connected to Germany’s cell network in Gottingen, more than 670 kilometers north of Milan.
It’s not clear exactly what Jovancic was doing in Basiglio, and then in Germany. However, a visual slideshow prepared for the Milan Carabinieri identifies his travels here as the “First Inspection”-- when Jovancic was allegedly casing the joint and making plans for Uss's escape.
It’s unclear if Jovancic traveled by plane or by car.
February 20, 2023
The phones linked to Jovancic were next recorded on Italian cell networks at 11:06 a.m., back in Desenzano del Garda. It isn’t clear how exactly he traveled from Germany, or when.
His phones’ signals were recorded as he traveled west, on the A4 highway, arriving at the Milan suburb of Basiglio, at 3:16 p.m. He spent less than an hour in the suburb; the phone’s pings were next picked up near San Giuliano Milanese, about 17 kilometers east, at 4:03 p.m., and again in Desenzano del Garda at 5:54 p.m.
That journey was the "Second Inspection," according to the Milan police.
February 22, 2023
Phone signals showed Jovancic's phone leaving Desenzano del Garda and traveling east, crossing through Slovenia and Croatia before arriving in Serbia at 7:23 p.m.
March 5, 2023
Jovancic returned from Serbia to Italy by car, arriving in Desenzano del Garda at 8:30 p.m., according to cell-phone data. Two days before departing, he posted a video of an Orthodox church in Romania to his TikTok account. The account's nickname is "Vor v Zakon" or "Thief In Law" -- a widely known Russian phrase that refers to organized crime bosses in Russia.
March 6, 2023
Jovancic's cell phone signals showed him departing Desenzano del Garda at 8:30 a.m. on what Italian police described as the "Third Inspection."
One day later, Jovancic drove to Uss's residence again. He left Desenzano del Garda at 8:30 a.m. and headed to Milan by way of Alessandria, to the southwest -- not a direct route. His cell phone pings showed him in Milan at 12:54 p.m. and in Basiglio at 4:25 p.m.
An hour later, his phone signal was detected at Trezzano sul Naviglio and then at the Slovenian border crossing of Gorizia, where he appeared to have driven, at 10:06 p.m.
March 7-11, 2023
Jovancic's cell phones showed him arriving in an unidentified location in Serbia at 3.22 p.m. Four days later, he returned to Italy, according to police; his cell phones registered in Germany on the morning of March 11 and at Desenzano del Garda shortly after 3 p.m.
Italian police also said Italian cell networks registered the cell phone of Srdjan Lolic, a 51-year-old Serbian man. After entering Italy at Trieste, he drove to Milan, arriving just before 8 p.m. on March 11.
Little is known about Lolic. He served as the general manager of a Belgrade hotel called Putnik Inn from mid-2018 until early 2020. On February 9, 2023, according to Serbian corporate registry documents, he resigned from the board of directors of a related corporation that shares the same address and management as Putnik Inn. The hotel itself is owned by a business conglomerate whose shareholders include Cypriots and Serbs. A Russian businessman was listed as a director of the joint corporation.
In April 2023, less than a month after Uss escaped from house arrest in Italy, Lolic was reported to have flown to the North Pole, claiming to a Belgrade newspaper that he was the first Serb to set foot there. He told the newspaper he traveled via Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, where he boarded a military plane for the journey north.
Krasnoyarsk is the capital of the vast, mineral-rich Siberian region of the same name, whose governor at the time was Uss's father, Aleksandr. U.S. authorities said Aleksandr Uss was a "close ally of President Vladimir Putin."
Lolic had dinner with the governor after returning to Krasnoyarsk, he told the Belgrade newspaper.
Five days after Lolic’s article appeared, Aleksandr Uss announced his resignation as Krasnoyarsk governor. He said he had met a few days earlier with Putin, who suggested he move to a different role. No reason was given for his departure.
March 12, 2023
Network records showed Jovancic’s cell phone, along with that of his son Boris, departing Desenzano del Garda at 9:11 a.m., arriving in Milan about 90 minutes later.
Father and son, along with Lolic, then inspected the Basiglio property where Uss was staying, police records state. They departed at 12:59 p.m. Lolic appeared then to depart Italy, passing by Venice at 8:13 p.m.
March 16, 2023
Jovancic and his son bought a Volvo V60 wagon from a dealer in Castegnato, a town located between Lake Garda and Milan, sometime between 9:27 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The car was registered under Boris Jovancic’s name. Vladimir Jovancic then drove to Serbia on the same day, crossing from Croatia at the Batrovci border post at 6:36 p.m. The Volvo’s Italian-registered license plate – EP605VA – was recorded on border post surveillance videos.
March 21, 2023
Cellular signals showed Vladimir Jovancic departing Serbia at 5:02 p.m. and arriving at Desenzano del Garda at 11:20 p.m.
At 8:22 p.m., Lolic’s cell phone was detected at the Batrovci border crossing. He was driving an Audi A8 sedan with Serbian license plates, BG1768HP, that he had rented at the Putnik Inn in Belgrade. According to Italian prosecutors, Lolic was joined on the drive by a 47-year-old Serbian man named Nebojsa Ilic.
Earlier in the day, an Italian court had cleared the way for Uss's extradition to the United States, five months after Uss’s initial detention at the Milan airport.
March 22, 2023
Matej Janezic, a 40-year-old Slovenian man, entered Italy at Trieste at 8:31 a.m., driving a Volvo S80 sedan with Slovenian license plates, LJDP082. He arrived in Bedizzole, a township just west of Lake Garda, around 10:30 a.m.
At 10:45, according to cell network data, four cars departed Bedizzole, arriving at a shopping center in Lacchiarella – a seven-minute drive from Uss's residence – at 12:16 p.m. In addition to the two Volvos and the Audi, there was a fourth car in the convoy: a Fiat Bravo that had been transferred to Jovancic by a 36-year-old Albanian woman named Emirada Ibo.
Ibo had transferred insurance for the Fiat to Jovancic a week earlier. Italian prosecutors charged her with being an accomplice to Uss's escape.
Contacted by RFE/RL with calls and texts via WhatsApp, Ibo declined to discuss the allegations against her by phone and asked that questions be sent in writing. She then declined to answer further phone calls from RFE/RL and responded by text message, saying, “I don’t know anything about it. I am sorry.”
At the Lacchiarella shopping center, surveillance cameras captured Jovancic speaking with Lolic at 12:17 p.m. A minute later, Janezic, Boris Jovancic, and a man who is likely Ilic arrived at the shopping center.
Jovancic and his son were seen shopping for groceries for about 20 minutes. At 1:06 p.m., the four cars departed the shopping center. Two of them – one driven by Jovancic, one by Lolic – reach the Borgo Di Vione complex, and surveillance cameras recorded Jovancic walking into the gated community.
At 1:40 p.m., a man police identified as Jovancic was shown entering what appeared to be Uss's residence carrying a shopping bag from Lacchiarella.
Shortly after that, two men were shown talking on a sidewalk; one, with a hoodie pulled over his head, was identified by Italian police as Uss.
Cameras then recorded Uss and Jovancic walking down a sidewalk, exiting the complex’s northern entrance, and then getting into the Fiat and driving away.
As part of the Italian court order granting him pretrial house arrest instead of detention in jail, Uss had been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet around his ankle, allowing police to track him and be notified if he went beyond a certain radius of his residence.
During Uss's escape, Italian prosecutors said, the transmission from the monitoring bracelet was disrupted with a “signal interdictor” – a device that jams or interferes with the transmission. At some point later, Jovanic provided a bolt cutter to cut the device off of his ankle, according to U.S. prosecutors. Uss then threw the device out of the car window.
The alarm for the monitoring device sounded at 1:52 p.m., prompting police to respond, though it’s unclear exactly how long it took for them to arrive – and by the time they did, Uss was gone. Police summoned the fire brigade to break down the door. Inside, the TV was playing loudly, but the house was empty.
At some point that afternoon, Uss got out of the Fiat and into the Audi. With Jovancic at the wheel, they headed east to Venice and then to the Slovenian border along with the Volvo, driven by Janezic. The two cars crossed the border at Gorizia around 5:50 p.m., their license plates recorded on roadside surveillance cameras.
March 23, 2023
The Audi, now driven by Ilic, crossed into Serbia from Croatia at 6:40 a.m.
The escape operation complete, Uss paid Jovancic an additional 40,000 euros, according to U.S. prosecutors. Uss is believed to have then flown from Belgrade to Moscow, but it’s unclear when, how, and whether it was on a commercial flight.
April 4, 2023
After days of mounting speculation in the Italian media about his whereabouts, Uss released a statement to Russian media.
“I’m in Russia! Over these particularly dramatic few days, I had strong and reliable people alongside me. Thanks to them!” Uss said. “The Italian court, whose impartiality I initially counted on, demonstrated obvious political bias.”
“Unfortunately, it was ready to ‘bend’ under pressure from U.S. authorities. In today’s international situation, when they ‘play without rules,’ my return to my homeland, even in such a ‘nonstandard’ way, is a victory,” he said.
An e-mail sent to a Russian address associated with Uss was returned as undeliverable. Maria Yagodina did not respond by the time of publication.
The Aftermath
Jovancic was arrested by Croatian authorities on December 4 on a U.S. arrest warrant and sent to a Zagreb detention center. The October 27 grand jury indictment that was unsealed the day after Jovancic’s arrest accused him of being one of several people involved in Uss's escape.
As of publication of this report, Jovancic remained in custody in Zagreb pending extradition proceedings, according to Croatian authorities.
His son Boris was arrested the same day by Italian authorities, according to the ANSA news agency. It’s unclear whether he also faces U.S. charges.
Janezic was arrested on January 19, 2024, in Ljubljana by Slovenian authorities on an Italian arrest warrant. He was ordered into house arrest, pending extradition to Italy, a Slovenian police spokesperson told RFE/RL.
The other three suspects – Ilic, Ibo, and Lolic – remained at-large as of publication of this report. Neither Lolic nor Ilic could be located for comment.
Serbia’s Justice Ministry did not respond to queries from RFE/RL about Uss's escape and whether the government had received an arrest warrant or similar request for legal assistance from Italy or elsewhere.
'An International Embarrassment'
Since returning to Russia, Uss has largely kept a low profile, with little or no posting on social media and mentions in Russia media.
The fallout from his escape, however, has persisted.
Around the time Uss reappeared in Russia, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was questioned by reporters on his escape.
"The case is quite serious,” said Meloni, whose government has been in office since around the time of Uss's arrest. “There are certainly anomalies. I think the main anomaly is the [court’s decision] to keep him under house arrest [for] questionable reasons and to maintain the decision even when there was a decision on extradition.”
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio also suggested that the decision had been a mistake.
“With this familial situation, having a wife and a home, this man went home from jail with a bracelet, despite the fact that judicial authorities had been inundated with indications he was a high flight risk,” Nordio told Italian lawmakers on April 20, 2023.
And at a session in the lower house of parliament two weeks later, members of the opposition Green-Left electoral bloc ripped into the government for their handling of the case.
“How is it possible that he was not guarded, monitored constantly, but only every 72 hours?” lawmaker Devis Dori said.
“Italy, in the manner in which the Italian government has handled the Artyom Uss affair, has just embarrassed itself internationally,” said Angelo Bonelli, chairman of the Green Europe party.
The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to comment, referring questions to Italian authorities and the U.S. Justice Department in Washington. The Justice Department declined comment, referring only to previously released press statements.
The Italian Justice Ministry did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Adding further intrigue to Uss's escape: persistent speculation that Russian intelligence agencies played a role in arranging or facilitating the plan.
“We need to actually understand whether there was also interference, an external intervention by Moscow's secret services,” Dori, the lawmaker, said during the parliament hearing last April.
Neither Dori nor Bonelli responded to messages seeking further comment.
On the day of Uss's reappearance in Russia, a Russian Telegram channel known for its links to Russian security services reported that his escape may have involved a former Italian special forces officer who has lived in Moscow for at least six years and was married to a Russian woman.
The channel, Cheka-OGPU, also said Uss had been given a fake passport.
Uss's father, meanwhile, publicly thanked Putin.
“Special words of gratitude go out to our president,” he said upon his son’s return to Russia. “He is not just the head of our state, he is a man with a big and open heart.”
