Americas

Americas

Russia Proposes Bilateral Extradition Treaty to U.S.

10 February 2012 04:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russia proposes the United States to sign a bilateral extradition treaty or join the existing international conventions, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said on Friday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

"The Justice Ministry proposes either signing bilateral treaties on the extradition of criminals and repatriation of convicts. The second variant for the U.S. is to join the existing convention mechanisms, we will persuade our U.S. partners to do this too,â€ Konovalov told journalists during his working visit to Washington.

"Weâ€™ve raised the issues more than two years ago, during the first visit of a justice ministryâ€™s delegation to the U.S. So far, frankly speaking, the U.S. side remains reluctant to our proposals,â€ the minister said. â€œBut, on the whole, we hope to persuade them and we are set to do our best.â€

Russia and the U.S. have no extradition deal and Russian citizens convicted by U.S. court serve their sentences in the United States.

Relations between the two countries have been strained by legal proceedings against Russian nationals in the U.S., including the trial of Viktor Bout, a Russian national arrested in Thailand in March 2008 in an operation led by U.S. agents and extradited in November 2010, and the case of Vladimir Zdorovenin, a Russian cybercrimes suspect extradited in mid-January from Switzerland to the U.S. without informing Russia in time.

"Such practices are absolutely unacceptable to us, we, of course, think that it is understandableâ€¦ But people should not be abducted on the territory of third states, they should not be extradited illegally. Legal instruments and mechanisms should be used, and we are going to further discuss the issue with the Americans,â€ Konovalov said.