Foreign Ministry: more than 60 Russians are serving sentences in the United States on unfair charges
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More than 60 Russians are serving sentences in the United States on unfair charges. Such a statement in an interview with RIA Novosti done Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Vershinin.
“The total number of Russian citizens taken hostage, in fact, exceeds 60 people,” he said.
According to the diplomat, the US authorities have been “hunting” for Russians all over the world for many years. Citizens of the Russian Federation are detained on false charges, and then extradited to the United States, where they are sentenced to long prison terms, they can be decades, Vershinin said.
He added that this trend has been intensifying recently, and warned the Russians, in whom there may be “a specific interest on the part of the US intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” from traveling to unfriendly countries. The Deputy Foreign Minister said that in relation to Russians in the United States, there is a “presumption of guilt based on the principle “Russian means a criminal.”
Vershinin noted that the Russian Embassy in the United States, as well as the Russian Consulate General in Houston and New York, continue to seek the return of compatriots to Russia.
On December 8, Viktor Bout, accused by the US authorities of illegal arms trafficking, returned to Russia after a prisoner exchange with the American side at the Abu Dhabi airport. Basketball player Brittney Griner flew from Russia to the United States, who was detained in February 2022 at Sheremetyevo after vape cartridges with hashish oil were found in her hand luggage. Before the exchange, Greiner and Booth were pardoned, they will not have to serve their sentences in their countries.
Bout was arrested in 2008 in Thailand at the request of Washington, he was charged with illegal arms trafficking and supporting terrorism. Bout spent 2.5 years in prison in Thailand, and then he was extradited to the United States, and in 2012 the court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The Russian categorically did not admit his guilt.
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