An American has not been allowed out of Armenia for two years because he got into trouble in Russia.

An American who came to Armenia on vacation has not been allowed out of the country for two years. In Russia he was accused of drug possession, reports Meduza.

Photo: IStock

In 2017, American Eric Thomas Creamer, who lived and worked in Russia, was accused of drug possession. The police detained him when he left the house to buy cigarettes, and released him only a day later without any status.

Creamer then left the country. In 2021, he came to Armenia to meet his girlfriend from Russia, but already at the border he was warned that he would not be able to go back. The restrictions, as it turned out, were due to the fact that Creamer was arrested in absentia in Russia and put on the interstate wanted list. At the same time, Armenia does not extradite Creamer (whether Russia requested deportation is unknown), but the Armenian police do not understand what to do with him.

A good start

Eric Thomas Creamer first came to Russia as an 18-year-old exchange student in 2005. He completed a course and a half at Irkutsk State Technical University, while working part-time as an English tutor. A few years later, having received a linguist degree in the USA, Creamer came to work in Russia officially - first in a network of foreign language schools, and since 2015 at the Center for Language Training and Testing at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

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Creamer translated scientific articles and presentations on physics, chemistry and engineering, the content of which he says he did not even understand. But one time, according to Creamer, the director of the language center "hinted" to him that he should not have seen a student presentation about satellites.

Along with his job, which Creamer talks about simply as a way to earn money, he, according to him, helped Russian scientists leave the country. Creamer did not specify what this help consisted of.

“And I still help, I want [this country to fall apart, and brain drain is a good weapon for this. And I feel sorry for the people: the salary is $900 a month. You can work at McDonald’s in the USA and earn twice as much,” he said.

Drug possession charge

On the night of April 12, 2017, Creamer, who had gone out to buy cigarettes, was stopped on the street in Moscow by police and, after asking for documents, was forced into a car. He was brought to a certain room, which he calls an attic, and accused of possessing drugs, showing “two bags of foil” allegedly found on him. Creamer said the officers yelled at him, once put a gun to his head and demanded $5550 to let him go. He himself claims that he did not have any drugs on him.

Please share this post and contact the Armenian embassy in DC at 1-202-319-1976. Leave a message and tell them to release Eric Thomas Creamer to the United States.

It would mean the world to me as I just want to go home. pic.twitter.com/Ib3AiHPExr

— BroSINT 69™ (@osint_69) November 20, 2023

In the morning, Creamer was taken to the police station, then to another place (he believes that it was the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center), from there he was returned to the station the next morning and finally released in the evening without being given any procedural documents. Two weeks later, Creamer left Russia on the advice of a lawyer he knew and returned home to Ohio.

Arrest in Armenia

In Russia, Creamer is left with an ex-wife and son and a new girlfriend, also Russian. Soon his ex-wife moved to the United States, but he saw his girlfriend only occasionally, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. In September 2021, they decided to meet in Georgia and from there travel to Armenia. Straight from the checkpoint, the border guards took Creamer’s passport and, without explaining anything, took him to the station in Yerevan.

There they began to convince him to sign a certain document in Armenian - as Creamer recalls, the people at the station told him that this was consent to transfer to Russia. He refused, and was taken back to the checkpoint, and there they warned him that he would now not be able to leave Armenia, because Russia had put him on the wanted list.

Creamer and his girlfriend went to Yerevan. There, the American contacted the US Embassy, ​​but they answered that they could not help him. Creamer believes that the problem is the lack of publicity - no one writes about him because he “is not Brittney Greiner, not a WSJ journalist.”

“I contacted Trevor Reed, he was in Moscow for three years, he told me that for three years the State Department did not pay any attention to him, to calls, and only when his parents were able to personally meet with Biden, they released him after 20 days.” , says Creamer.

A month later, Creamer tried to fly from Yerevan to the United States, but at the airport, the Armenian lawyer who helped him after being detained at the checkpoint spoke with local police and said that Creamer was “not flying anywhere.” On the same day in Russia, Creamer was charged in absentia with drug possession, and three weeks later he was put on the interstate wanted list.

In mid-November, the court arrested Creamer in absentia, then this decision was canceled, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs again tried to achieve an arrest, and finally in October 2022, the court re-arrested Creamer in absentia.

At the same time, the state agency TASS published news with reference to the case materials, which stated that Creamer had admitted guilt during his arrest in 2017 and was given a written undertaking not to leave the place, but later he “eluded the investigation.” In addition, as TASS wrote, Creamer’s house was searched. Both he and his girlfriend deny this, moreover, in the TASS news, according to them, the wrong address is indicated.

In Armenia, according to Creamer’s lawyer, his client does not have any procedural status. He received a response from the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which reported that the restrictions on Creamer’s departure from the country were related to his search, but he could move freely in Armenia. According to the lawyer, he is now trying to find out whether Creamer faces extradition to Russia. He suggests that local police simply do not know what to do with the American. A Russian lawyer, who requested anonymity, said that a wanted notice is usually accompanied by a request for extradition. Whether it was done in Creamer's case is unknown.

Dream of going home

Creamer himself is still working remotely and really wants to fly home to the USA, where he has a son and an elderly mother who has already suffered from cancer three times. Creamer also continues to help Russian scientists move to the United States and runs a telegram channel in which he publishes footage from the war in Ukraine.

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“I publish a lot of war videos where orcs die, but the hardest ones are not just a drone flying and exploding, I want the suffering of orcs to be visible... I choose the most terrible videos, but it’s true and paints a picture that Russia is uncivilized country, so that the opinion of Russians is not listened to, because even in the West people say that perhaps Russia is right and there are Nazis in Ukraine. No,” Creamer says.

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