MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have discussed over the phone the situation of Russian citizens Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout convicted in the US, Maria Butina arrested in the US and clarified the situation around Ukrainian national Oleg Sentsov sentenced to twenty years behind bars in Russia for terrorism, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday.

"The Russian minister called for an immediate end to the prosecution of Russian citizen Butina under a far-fetched pretext and again drew attention to the situation with Yaroshenko, Bout and other Russians who are in US prisons in violation of the procedures stipulated by the bilateral 1999 treaty on mutual legal assistance," the ministry said.

"Pompeo raised the issue of Oleg Sentsov serving his sentence on charges of terrorist activity, with appropriate explanations provided to him," the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, adding that the conversation was initiated by the American side.

Maria Butina was arrested in Washington on July 15. She is accused of conspiracy against the US and of acting as an unregistered foreign agent. US special services claim that Butina conducted such activity without being registered as a foreign agent at the Department of Justice.

Konstantin 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.

Viktor Bout was detained in the Thai capital of Bangkok in 2008 under an arrest warrant issued by a local court at the United States’ request. He was charged with conspiracy to deliver weapons to a group calling itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia regarded as a terrorist organization in the United States. In 2010, Bout was extradited to the United States. In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and a $15 mln fine.