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Russia, US have no agreements on handover of citizens linked to cybercrimes, says diplomat

Sergey Ryabkov noted that Russia needed to deal with the return of its citizens serving sentences after unlawful convictions first

GENEVA, July 28. /TASS/. Russia and the US have reached no agreements on the handover of citizens linked to cyber crimes, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.

"We do not hand over Russian citizens. This is the clear principled stance that we maintain," he said when asked a corresponding question. "As for the handover of citizens of other states, we don’t have an agreement with the US on this. There is no such practice, of course. We need to deal with the return of our citizens serving sentences after unlawful convictions first."

According to him, if the US wanted "to clear up the picture" and if it was ready to work on a mutually respectful and constructive basis, it would have used the Russian-US Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters signed in 1999.

"We need regular requests and regular methods of processing this information, instead of publishing fakes in the media that gain a lot of attention and thinking that if the number of likes and retweets is through the roof, the right effect has been achieved. This is not a professional approach to the job," the diplomat said.