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Russian national serving term in US requires surgery — deputy foreign minister

According to the Russian foreign ministry’s envoy on human rights, it was the unsatisfactory conditions in prison that had caused the acute illnesses of Konstantin Yaroshenko
Konstantin Yaroshenko ITAR-TASS
Konstantin Yaroshenko
© ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Konstantin Yaroshenko, serving a long term in the US prison, requires a surgery, which the US authorities confirm, but the waiting time for the surgery is several months, the Russian foreign ministry’s envoy on human rights, democracy and the rule of law Konstantin Dolgov told TASS on Friday.

"In our work on granting legal rights and interests of the Russian national Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a long term in the US jail under an absolutely politicized sentence, our diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington finally managed to contact representatives of the Department of State and the Bureau of Prisons, where they once again focused on unacceptable non-observation of certain international obligations, including the conditions for our citizen, first of all as he does not receive adequate medical assistance."

The Russian diplomat said the unsatisfactory conditions in prison had caused the acute illnesses of the Russian citizen.

"We once again demanded a complex medical inspection to offer a correct treatment to recover the failed health of our citizen," he continued. "Sure, we demonstrate certain reasonable flexibility in modality of this inspection, and at the same time we say it should be complex and it should involve Russian-speaking experts so that to make maximum comfortable the communication with Yaroshenko and see the realistic state of his health. No doubt, we would need also his full case containing detailed lists of all earlier medical procedures."

All those requirements have been reiterated, the diplomat said.

"Besides, we said that unfortunately lately for reasons absolutely unrelated to the Russian citizen he turned out to be put in much worse conditions. He was deprived of many essentials, including pain killers," he said. "This situation is unacceptable, and we said about it."

"The U.S. representatives have tried for a long time to avoid responsibility for this situation (around Yaroshenko’s health), they offered whatever reasons, which we, of course, cannot accept, and our representative have notified of this," he said. "But in the long run, and it is important, the U.S. representatives said the recent inspection of Yaroshenko in November by the prison doctors confirmed he has several acute illnesses. A surgery was recommended to him, he is on the line for the surgery, where the waiting time is several months. Clearly, in this situation his health may worsen further.".