BUTNER (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2022) Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov told reporters on Monday that he will send a diplomatic note to the State Department tomorrow in an effort to transfer Russian National Roman Seleznev, who is serving a sentence in a US prison, to a different facility with better conditions.
"Perhaps at this stage we will do everything we can do. When we get to Washington tomorrow, we will send a note to the State Department to try to transfer him to another prison where conditions can be slightly better," Antonov said. On Monday, Antonov visited Seleznev in a Federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
"This is such a prison. This is a prison with such harsh conditions, but inhuman conditions are created for Roman," the Ambassador said. "They consider him to be some of the most dangerous criminals, it is very difficult to understand why."
Antonov shared it even took some time to arrange this visit.
"We had already bought tickets, we had a team ready to go here, however, some time ago, about three weeks ago, at the last moment, they refused to allow us a meeting," he explained. "It's amazing that they said that I could create some kind of security problem. We raised this issue with US officials, and I am very glad that we had this visit today. I am very glad that we managed to shake hands with Roman, although we talked through the glass, but the prison representatives explained that this was due to COVID."
Antonov also shared that he spoke with Seleznev's father two days ago.
"He is very worried for the condition of his son," he said. "It's already late here in Moscow. I won't call him now... I'll call him tomorrow."
Roman Seleznev was detained by US special services in the Maldives in 2014 and was transferred to the United States. His defense, his father and the Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident a kidnapping and a violation of international law. In 2016, Seleznev was convicted of cyber fraud and was sentenced to 27 years in prison the following year.�
