US Department of Justice claims that the arrests made on Russian nationals do not violate the 1999 Mutual Legal Assistance treaty between the United States of America and Russia.
Sputnik News reported that US DOJ Public Affairs Specialist Mark Abueg said the apprehension of US law authorities on Russian nationals overseas is not associated with the Mutual Legal Assistance treaty between the two nations. He said, "The 1999 treaty referenced is a mutual legal assistance treaty between the United States and Russia, the goal of which is to facilitate the gathering of evidence and other information in criminal matters."
He added that "It does not relate to the apprehension of fugitives. The United States and Russia are not parties to an extradition treaty."
In a report by the International Business Times, Russian Foreign Ministry's Human Rights Ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov revealed that the United States has issued 22 warrants of arrest on Russian citizens in various countries in the world. He accused the US of continually ignoring the 1999 bilateral Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which aims to create an agreement of exchange in information on suspects.
"Law enforcement agencies of the US make use of unlawful methods of its extraterritorial law application to the Russian citizens in the third countries. We have registered 22 cases of the US authorities' issuing orders to detain Russians in the third countries for the time being as well as for their extradition to the US," said Dolgov.
The Examiner wrote that Russian national Alexei Burkov was arrested in Israel earlier in December at the order of U.S. officials for cybersecurity crimes against the United States. Russian embassy's head of consular office in Israel, Ruslan Kandaurov, said, "The accusations are connected with the breaking into computer databases."
After Burkov's arrest, another Russian citizen Yuri Efremov was also arrested under the order of US authorities in Finland.
Due to these apprehensions, Moscow has warned Russian citizens to consider all the risk when travelling abroad.
