US Can Use Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty With Russia To Deal With Ransomware - Ryabkov

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2021) If the United States really wants to deal with cybercrimes and internet ransomware, it could use the 1999 mutual legal assistance treaty with Russia, bearing in mind, however, Moscow's principled position not to extradite its citizens, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

Consultations between Russia and the United States on strategic stability were held in Geneva on Wednesday. The Russian interdepartmental delegation was headed by Ryabkov, the US delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. The parties agreed to meet again in late September to discuss strategic stability, with informal consultations also planned in the meantime.

"We do not extradite Russian citizens. This is an obvious, principled position that we adhere to. As for the extradition of citizens of other countries, there is no such agreement with the United States; of course, there is no such practice either. We would have to deal with the return of our citizens who are serving unjust sentences," Ryabkov said, answering whether it was possible to conclude an agreement with the United States on the extradition of cybercriminals who operate from the territory of both countries.

"I do not want to create the false impression that the question of ransomware, which many US officials have been talking about lately quite categorically, is so unambiguous. If the United States wanted to clarify this issue and, in general, would be ready to work on a mutually respectful, constructive basis, they would have used the 1999 agreement on mutual legal assistance," Ryabkov added.

He stressed that "we need normal requests and a normal form of processing such information, and not stuffing it into the media with a subsequent surge of attention, the number of likes and retweets is off scale, the effect has been achieved, but this is not work."

"This is an unprofessional approach to this issue. If we manage to arrange this whole issue on a sound, understandable and professional basis and set some framework for this, then, probably, there will be results that everyone needs. We do not want the Internet to be used by criminals, statistics in the whole world of cybercrime is depressing. This must be done, but the most important thing is that there is already a basis for this," the deputy minister explained.