WASHINGTON, August 2. /TASS/. Russian diplomats will do their best to secure the release of dozens of Russians who remain jailed in the United States, the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement.

"Dozens of Russians still remain behind bars in the United States, looking at their fatherland with hope and waiting to be released," the embassy said in a statement. "We will pay maximum effort in order to secure the release or improve the plight of our citizens, caught in the wheels of local justice."

The embassy added that it viewed "the well-being of our compatriots, who have found themselves in US prisons as a result of worldwide manhunt by US special services," as its most important task.

Moscow and the West conducted a prisoner swap on Thursday. Eight Russians detained or convicted in NATO countries, as well as two minors, returned home, while 16 convicted foreign nationals and Russians linked to Western intelligence agencies, who had been pardoned by the president, left Russia.

The Russians that returned home in the prisoner swap particularly include a man known under the name of Krasikov, sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany, and Vladislav Klyushin, who had been in custody in the US, a source in a Russian competent agency said.