'Putin's Architect' holed up in Moscow,says won't come back to Italy

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 5 - A Russo-Italian architect dubbed Putin's Architect' is holed up in Moscow and says he won't come back to Italy where he is wanted on an arrest warrant from Brescia prosecutors in a tax crime probe.
    "Russia is my home. I have my work here, my interests and my main relations," Lanfranco Cirillo told ANSA Thursday.
    "At the moment I have no reason, not desire, to return to Italy, given the treatment that has been given to me"," said the 63-year-old, who has long lived in Moscow and has designed major projects for the Russian president.
    Italian tax authorities have seized some 140 million euros from Cirillo in the last few months.
    A trial into alleged fiscal wrongdoing is set to open in Brescia on February 23, and he has been declared a fugitive from Italian justice.
    Cirillo is a Russian architect of Italian origin, residing in Moscow and Dubai. He is a founder and a co-owner of an architectural studio, Masterskaja, in Moscow. In 2014, he received Russian citizenship after more than 20 years of residence in the country. (ANSA).