MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Some countries have denied Russia legal assistance in criminal cases, including extradition requests, for political reasons, said Ilya Rogachev, presidential representative on international criminal and legal cooperation.
"Take such an area as the execution of orders for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, including requests for extradition. The amount of our requests being granted in a number of countries is basically nil. And even in cases where we ask for the extradition of an alleged criminal accused of committing murder, armed robbery, theft, corruption, and sexual crimes, we are denied," he said during a scientific seminar on global security, which is taking place on the sidelines of an international meeting of high-level representatives in charge of security issues.
"And these refusals may or may not come with justification, but it is clear that we are talking about political motives. In other words, we see that on the part of some of our former partners, the desire to just get under Russia’s skin by not handing over a criminal to it is higher than those principles of ensuring inevitability, responsibility, personal security and all sorts of other sonorous concepts that Westerners had previously promoted for decades, if not centuries," he said.