MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. About 6,000 Russians are kept at foreign penitentiaries, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s consular department, Ruslan Golubovsky, said at a meeting of the State Duma’s international affairs committee devoted to the protection of Russians abroad.

"About 6,000 Russians having different procedural status - accused, convicts and suspects - are kept at penitentiaries in other countries," he said.

He said the range of charges put forward against Russian citizens was rather wide and some of them had a political aspect. Golubovsky said that remuneration for the services of Russians’ lawyers was the most acute issue of all.

"On our website (of the Russian Foreign Ministry) there is an association of Russian-speaking lawyers. Also, on the websites of Russian offices abroad and the Foreign Ministry there are lists of lawyers in each foreign country who have expressed the readiness to extend assistance to Russian citizens. Naturally, all this is being done on the commercial basis," he said.

Golubovsky called for considering the possibility of creating a special insurance product for Russians going abroad identical to medical insurance, which would ensure compensation for legal services.