"We welcome the initiative of Russian officials that has been made in the last few days to reach out to the US government on the eve of the meeting between the Russian and US presidents to get this case moving and request either pardon or transfer of Yaroshenko to Russia," Tarasov said.
Tarasov expressed hope the developments between Russia and the United States will help resolve his client’s incarceration.
"I think it is a very good sign and we are hopeful that the two countries will move in the direction of trying to resolve Yaroshenko’s very lengthy incarceration," Tarasov said.
On Wednesday, Russia's human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said she had asked Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland to help her with the issue of pardoning or extraditing Yaroshenko from the United States to Russia.
A US court jailed Yaroshenko in 2011 on charges of conspiring to import cocaine in the United States.
In June, Yaroshenko was transferred from the Fort Dix prison in the US state in New Jersey to the Danbury correctional facility in the US state of Connecticut.
Tarasov emphasized that his client has complained that the new facility is overcrowded and more specifically that he has experienced difficulties obtaining medical assistance.
"I have been able to communicate with him over the phone in the last few days, however, my requests for in-person meeting have not been answered yet," Tarasov said.
Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia on May 28, 2010, and handed over to the United States, prompting protests from Russia. In April 2016, the New York Court of Appeals refused to revise the pilot's sentence.
