Thursday, 25 July 2013
Russia Cites Extradition as Sore Point With U.S.
Russian officials complained on Monday that the United States routinely disregards extradition requests by the Russian government, the latest in a series of public statements that seem aimed at laying the groundwork for granting asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor on the run from the American authorities.
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Russia Cites Extradition as Sore Point With U.S.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
23 July 2013
Russian officials complained on Monday that the United States routinely disregards extradition requests by the Russian government, the latest in a series of public statements that seem aimed at laying the groundwork for granting asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor on the run from the American authorities.
In separate but apparently coordinated statements, officials from the Russian Interior Ministry and from the prosecutor general’s office complained that the United States had refused to extradite individuals sought by Russia as suspected terrorists or on serious criminal charges.
“The United States is repeatedly refusing Russia to extradite individuals, to hold them criminally liable, including those accused of committing serious or heinous crimes,” Sergei Gorlenko, the acting chief of the prosecutor general’s extradition office, told the Interfax news agency. “We have been denied the extradition of murderers, bandits and bribetakers.”
The Interior Ministry accused the United States of “double standards” in demanding Mr. Snowden’s return. The prosecutor general’s office said the United States had refused to extradite about 20 suspects over the past decade, citing the lack of an extradition treaty — the same reason senior Kremlin officials have given in saying they have no plan to repatriate Mr. Snowden.
Mr. Snowden, who faces criminal espionage charges for leaking classified information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, has requested temporary asylum in Russia, and has accused the United States of violating international law by blocking him from traveling to Latin America, where three countries have expressed a willingness to take him.
A decision on Mr. Snowden’s application for temporary asylum by officials from the Federal Migration Service could come any day. By applying for temporary rather than political asylum, Mr. Snowden took the easiest route to permission for an extended stay in Russia, according to Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer who is advising him.
While President Vladimir V. Putin is widely believed to have the ultimate say over Mr. Snowden’s request, applications for temporary asylum technically do not need the president’s personal approval and are routinely granted directly by the Federal Migration Service.
The Obama administration has been pressing Russia to detain Mr. Snowden and send him to Washington. In recent days officials have sent signals that President Obama is considering canceling a planned summit meeting in Moscow in September, frustrated by the Snowden case as well as disagreements over human rights and how to end the civil war in Syria.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said it does not want Mr. Snowden’s case to harm bilateral relations but also has shown no willingness to turn him over to the American authorities. “This position remains unchanged,” Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said over the weekend.
Mr. Peskov added that Mr. Putin had more important things to think about. “Snowden cannot top the president’s schedule,” he said.
In complaining about the United States’ refusal to grant Russian extradition requests, Andrey Pilipchuk, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, cited the examples of Ilyas Akhmadov, a former senior leader of the Chechen separatist movement who is accused by Russia of terrorism, and Tamaz Nalbandov, who is accused of kidnapping and extortion as part of an organized crime group. Both have been living in the United States for several years.
In Mr. Akhmadov’s case, American officials have said they found no evidence that he was connected to terrorism.
Separately on Monday, Mr. Kucherna, the Kremlin-connected lawyer who has been assisting Mr. Snowden, accused United States Embassy officials in Moscow of not showing any concern about Mr. Snowden, even though he has been living in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport since June 23, when he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong.
On Twitter, the American ambassador, Michael A. McFaul, wrote, “Mr. Snowden ought to be returned to the United States to face the felony charges against him.”
Alexandra Kozlova contributed reporting.
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