Moscow has accused Washington of unlawfully extraditing a Russian national from Switzerland, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.
Russian national Vladimir Zdorovenin, accused of financial cybercrimes, faces up to 142 years in prison in the United States, where he was extradited from Switzerland on Monday.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time when U.S. special services organize the detention of our nationals in third countries, often on dubious grounds and by provocative methods,” Lukashevich said.
“What we’re looking at is the unlawful exterritorial application of U.S. laws against Russian nationals.”
Moscow also complained that neither the Swiss nor US authorities notified it about Zdorovenin’s extradition.
At his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein in Manhattan federal court Zdorovenin pleaded not guilty.
Bharara and Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Office, announced the unsealing of a nine-count indictment charging Zdorovenin and his son Kirill with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, and securities fraud.
The father and son were indicted under seal in May 2007.
Vladimir was apprehended on March 27, 2011, in Zurich, Switzerland, and arrived in New York on Monday after being extradited by the Swiss authorities. Kirill remains at large.
According to the unsealed indictment, between 2004 and 2005 the Russians “allegedly engaged in a series of crimes in Russia that victimized citizens of the United States through the use of stolen credit card information, multiple phony websites, and bank accounts in Russia and Latvia.”
