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FM asks Cambodia authorities not to delay artificially Polonsky probe

“In any case we must assert the rights of every Russian citizen and we follow the way the process goes on,” he stressed
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, February 10 (Itar-Tass) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asks the Cambodian authorities not to delay artificially the review of the criminal case against Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky, and at the same time recommends the Russian national to be constructive in a conversation with the Cambodian side.  

Speaking in “Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyov” program on Rossiya television on Sunday, Lavrov said that when a conflict emerged, Foreign Ministry officers immediately offered to help Polonsky, but “he preferred to rely on a certain local business partner and his lawyers”. “We were monitoring the way the Cambodian authorities were looking into the case or investigating it,” he said. A Russian medic has repeatedly examined Polonsky and his two friends. “Their condition gives no grounds for concern,” the top Russian diplomat said.

“In any case we must assert the rights of every Russian citizen and we follow the way the process goes on,” he stressed. “We ask the Cambodian authorities not to delay it artificially, but regretfully as they say to us (and we also see that) sometimes our citizens themselves stall the process whether intentionally or not,” Lavrov added.

“Sometimes they refuse to meet with those who conduct the investigation, in other cases they behave rather defiantly with staffers of that penitentiary establishment,” the foreign minister said. “So we want to settle that problem as soon as possible, but for that we also advice them to be more constructive in conversations with the Cambodian side,” Lavrov said in the program that was already broadcasted in Far East, and will be aired in Moscow at 23:30 on Sunday.