Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Russia warns its citizens about the risks of US-ordered kidnappings

Take a look at this warning on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:



This is what this text says:
PRESS RELEASE

Warning for Russian citizens traveling abroad

02/09/2013

In recent years, the number of cases of detention of Russian citizens in various parts of the world at the request of U.S. law enforcement agencies for the purpose of extradition and prosecution in the United States have become more frequent.  Among the recent cases - these arrests have included the cases of Dmitry Ustinov in Lithuania, Dmitry Belorossov in Spain, Maxim Chuharev in Costa Rica or Alexander Panin in the Dominican Republic.

Practice has shown that the trials of those who were so kidnapped and deported to the United States have been prejudiced against the defendant, based on shaky evidence and strongly biased in favor of the prosecutors . They usually end with the imposition of wrongful convictions sentences with long-term imprisonment, like what has happened to Viktor Bout and K.V.Yaroshenko convicted, respectively, at 25 and 20 years in prison.

Russian embassies and consulates general do, of course, offer consular and legal assistance to those Russians in need, but it would be wrong to hope that this assistance can secure successful outcome.

In these circumstances, the Russian Foreign Ministry recommends that Russian citizens to refrain from traveling abroad , especially to countries that have signed agreements with the U.S. on mutual extradition if there is reasonable suspicion that U.S. law enforcement agencies might have reasons to attempt to seize them.
September 2, 2013

Nice, no?  Some "reset" of US-Russian relations when Russian diplomats have to warn their citizens of the worldwide risks of being kidnapped...

The Saker