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Russian embassy slams new anti-Russian resolutions by US congressmen

"Maybe it's time for parliamentarians to tackle problems in their own country?" the embassy said

WASHINGTON, July 24. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy to the United States criticized anti-Russian resolutions by US congressmen, pointing out that US lawmakers should probably deal with problems in their own country.

"Local legislators have once again expressed their concern over the allegedly poor conditions of detention of several American inmates held in Russian prisons," the embassy said in a statement on its Facebook page. "It happens while tens of thousands of US citizens face inhumane treatment here every day and are deprived from access to adequate medical care. Our compatriots found themselves in the same exact situation."

"Maybe it's time for parliamentarians to tackle problems in their own country?" the embassy said, publishing photographs of several Russian citizens held in US prisons - Viktor Bout, Konstantin Yaroshenko and Roman Seleznev.

Earlier, the Senate of the US Congress adopted resolutions calling upon Russia to release US citizens Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, convicted and jailed in Russia. Resolutions of the US House of Representatives and the Senate, adopted separately by each chamber of the US parliament, are of advisory nature and not legally binding. They serve to express the lawmakers’ stance on this or that issue, and the executive branch if free to ignore them.

Paul Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Moscow on December 28, 2018, while on a spy mission. A criminal case was opened against him under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (espionage). The Moscow City Court eventually sentenced Whelan to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

American student Trevor Reed was sentenced last year to 9 years in penal colony for violent assault of a police officer in Moscow. According to investigators, in August 2019 Reed attacked police officers who arrived after a phone call of Moscow residents. They complained about an intoxicated man who started an argument with several women. When the foreigner was taken to the police station, in the vehicle, he attacked the driver and his partner.