Ohio resident Eric Thomas Creamer, who worked in Moscow for seven years and taught at MIPT, has not been able to leave Armenia since 2021, as Russia has put him on the interstate wanted list for drug possession. Creamer told Mediazona about this.
In April 2017, an American was detained when he went to a store in the center of Moscow. After checking his documents, six people in civilian clothes pushed him into a car. According to Creamer, he ended up «in some attic» where he was handcuffed to a table, called a spy, shouted at and had a gun pointed at his head.
The security forces told Creamer that they would release him if he paid them half a million rubles, but he refused, after which the American was informed that they had found drugs on him. Creamer insists he was given mephedrone. According to documents from the Tverskoy District Court, a criminal case was opened against Creamer for possession of drugs (Part 1 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code). After that he returned to the USA.
In September 2021, Creamer met his girlfriend Sasha in Georgia and they decided to go to Yerevan for the weekend. At the entrance to Armenia through a ground checkpoint, border guards took Creamer’s passport, took him to the police station, returned him to the checkpoint again and warned him that he would no longer be able to leave Armenia, since Russia had put him on the wanted list.
In October 2022, a court in Moscow arrested an American in absentia. Creamer contacted the US Embassy in Yerevan, but they replied that they could not help. Lawyer Karen Torosyan confirms that Creamer has no procedural status in Armenia and that the US Embassy did not provide him with any assistance. The man decided to seek publicity for his case because he wants to return to his son and mother, who was diagnosed with cancer.
Caucasian prisoner. An American cannot leave Armenia since 2021 because Russia has put him on the wanted list in the case of a gram of mephedrone