Russia has not received any offers from the United States to exchange convicts, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2020) Russia has not received any offers from the United States to exchange convicts, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik.
Earlier, media reported that the exchange of US citizen Paul Whelan, convicted on espionage charges in Russia, was possible in the coming months. According to some reports, Whelan should be exchanged for Russian citizens Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout, convicted in the United States.
"The question of returning Russian citizens, sentenced to imprisonment in the United States, to their homeland was repeatedly raised in the course of contacts with the Americans through the Russian Foreign Ministry," the ministry said.
"For this purpose, Washington has repeatedly been offered to consider the procedure for invoking the Council of Europe convention on the transfer of convicts," it added.
"In March of this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent an oral message to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling on the US authorities to release Russian citizens serving sentences in the United States on humanitarian grounds due to the spread of COVID-19," the ministry recalled.
Unfortunately, all attempts to somehow resolve this issue were ignored by the US side, it said.
"As for the possibility of carrying out any exchanges of convicts between Russia and the United States, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not receive any official proposals from Washington on this issue," the ministry concluded.
