All Attempts to Help Bout, Yaroshenko Jailed in US Fruitless - Snowden Lawyer

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — All attempts to help Russian nationals Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout, convicted in the United States, were in vain, since the US side does not hear Russia, member of the Russian Civic Chamber Anatoly Kucherena said Saturday.

"I tried to help, too, but everything was in vain, because, you know, the words that Barack Obama used to say 'we are an exceptional nation' probably matters. This exceptionalism, it seems, somehow magically acts on all US citizens, including the FBI and the NSA," Kucherena told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster, answering a question about the cases of Bout and Yaroshenko.

The lawyer also stressed that the United States used "barbaric methods."

"Apparently, this exceptionalism, which they have appropriated for themselves, allows them to violate human rights in the grossest manner. In the situation in which our citizens are today… the Russian Foreign Ministry, we must do everything possible to seek their release, but unfortunately we are not heard there, so they absolutely disregard the law and human rights," Kucherena, who is also the chairman of the Non-Governmental Council under the Russian Interior Ministry, concluded.

Russian businessman Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a joint operation between Thai and US authorities, who accused him of conspiring to kill US citizens by allegedly agreeing to supply Colombian rebels with weapons. Moscow said that the case was politicized, and has repeatedly urged Washington to release the Russian citizen.

In 2011, Russian pilot Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison on allegations of conspiring to import more than $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States. He was captured in Liberia in 2010 and turned over to the United States, prompting protests from Russia. In April 2016, the Appeal Court of New York denied revising the pilot's sentence.