I haven't been following this issue much, but I didn't see proof in this thread that Eldar was actually in permanent possession of the device.

By the way, I saw strong support in this thread for a sanctimonious statement of what Russian law stands for. In my experience, Russian law is a pretty fluid thing; even if a principle is shouted from the rooftops, it might be violated in practice practically everywhere. What courts will find depends on a lot of things other than what the law says. So I am skeptical about statements about Russian law that appear to imply it is similar to other legal systems in other countries.