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US Justice Dept. Declines to Comment on Russian Proposal to Swap Yaroshenko

© Photo : Konstantin Yaroshenko's lawyerKonstantin Yaroshenko
Konstantin Yaroshenko - Sputnik International
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The US Department of Justice has declined to comment on Moscow’s proposal to swap Russian pilot Konstantin Yarshenko serving a sentence in US prison for American prisoners in Russia, the department’s spokesperson Peter Carr told Sputnik on Wednesday.

Viktor Bout - Sputnik International
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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Confirms Yaroshenko, Bout Swap Proposal With US
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed earlier in the day that Moscow is ready to exchange Yarshenko for US prisoners.

"We will decline to comment at this time," Carr stated when asked whether the United States has received and would consider such a request.

Ryabkov explained that Russia has proposed American colleagues to use the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons to serve their time in the country of their citizenship, "so that the US could get rid of the burden of incarcerating Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout."

The United States is among 18 non-Council of Europe states that are party to the convention.

According to reports from Russian newspaper Izvestia, which cited government documents early Wednesday responding to a request made by Yaroshenko's mother, Moscow allegedly announced its readiness to exchange 13 US citizens for Yaroshenko.

Moscow maintains that Bout and Yaroshenko's arrests outside US territory are illegal.

Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to import more than $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and subsequently extradited to the United States.

Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a joint operation between Thai and US authorities, who accused him of conspiring to kill Americans by allegedly agreeing to supply Colombian militants with weapons.

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