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Moscow raises issue of jailed Russian pilot’s return every week, ambassador emphasizes

Moscow insists on Konstantin Yaroshenko's extradition to Russia

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Russia brings up the subject of pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a US prison, every week and insists on his repatriation, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said at the Valdai International Discussion Club on Friday.

"We are keeping a close eye on what is happening to Russian citizens and their incarceration conditions," the diplomat noted. "We raise the Konstantin Yaroshenko issue at meetings with the Americans almost every week. We insist on his extradition to us (Russia)."

"So far, we have been unable to achieve that. That does not mean, however, that we will no longer demand that the US stop the practice of kidnapping Russian nationals abroad," the ambassador stressed.

Yaroshenko case

Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in May 2010 and was later clandestinely transferred to the United States. In September 2011, he was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle a major cocaine shipment into the US, and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. However, Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty, saying that his arrest was a setup and the case was fabricated.

Until recently, Yaroshenko had been serving out his sentence at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution, but in mid-June he was first transferred to a transit incarceration facility in Brooklyn, New York, and then to the Danbury prison, which holds more than 1,400 inmates.

Russian officials and the pilot’s family have persistently requested that Washington extradite him to Russia.