All news

Russian citizens who might be of interest to U.S. security agencies should avoid travel

Russia's Foreign Ministry suggests Washington may try detain them abroad
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, September 2. (Itar-Tass) – “Russia’s Foreign Ministry recommends Russian citizens to refrain from international trips, especially to countries with extradition treaties with the US, if said citizens have grounded suspicions that American law enforcements are interested in them,” said the Ministry’s spokesperson.

The agency reminded that “as of late, incidents of Russian citizens being detained in various countries as per American requests in order to extradite and prosecute them in the United States.” “Some of the latest incidents are the arrests of Dmitry Ustinov in Lithuania, Dmitry Belorossov in Spain, Maxim Chukharev in Costa Rica, Alexander Panin in Dominican Republic,” the Ministry added.

“Experience has shown that litigation against those who were, in essence, kidnapped and taken to the U.S. is prejudiced, based on shaky evidence and is of distinct accusatory nature. Generally such litigation ends up in wrongful sentences with long terms, such as it happened with Viktor Bout and Konstantin Eroshenko, sentenced to 25 and 20 years in prison respectively,” the spokesperson emphasized.

“Russian embassies and consulates, naturally, provide consular and legal assistance to Russian citizens who find themselves in trouble; however, a positive outcome of such cases should not be relied upon,” the agency concluded.

More than 120 countries have extradition agreements with the United States, including all of the EU and Latin American countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.