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Moscow sends more arguments to Greece on Russian national Vinnik’s extradition — Lavrov

The Russian top diplomat recalled that there are US and French extradition requests out there

Alexander Vinnik Yuri Malinov/TASS

Alexander Vinnik

© Yuri Malinov/TASS

MOSCOW, November 6. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Moscow had communicated additional arguments to the Greek side regarding extradition of Russian national Alexander Vinnik to Russia.

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Lavrov underlined that talks with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias on Wednesday touched upon the situation surrounding the court trial of Vinnik's case as well as recalled that there are US and French extradition requests out there. "But there is also the main extradition request, considering the international legal provisions on priority of extradition to the country of nationality." "Today, we have sent additional arguments particularly considering changes that were introduced to the criminal code of Greece. Our evaluation suggests that in view of these changes there are no legal grounds to even consider extradition to any other country than Russia," Lavrov underscored.

He also stressed that the hearing is set to begin shortly on Wednesday. "We will be looking forward to the results and hope that justice will prevail," the minister added.

Alexander Vinnik was detained in Greece on July 25, 2017, at the request of the US, where he is accused of laundering four to nine billion dollars through the now non-existent BTC-e cryptocurrency trading platform.

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