The Foreign Ministry is advising Russian nationals "who believe a United States law enforcement agency has some claims against them not to travel abroad, and in particular not to visit countries that have signed bilateral extradition treaties" with Washington, the ministry said Monday.
There has been a rise in the incidence of detentions of Russian citizens in different parts of the world on warrants from U.S. law enforcement agencies, with the aim of extraditing and prosecuting them in the U.S., the ministry said in a statement on its website.
It cites the arrest of Dmitry Ustinov in Lithuania, Dmitry Belorossov in Spain, Maxim Chukharev in Costa Rica and Alexander Panin in the Dominican Republic. Ustinov was extradited to the US from Lithuania last week on suspicion of exporting military technology from the U.S. to Russia. Chukharev was wanted in connection with a money-laundering probe, while it was not clear on what grounds the U.S. wanted Belorossov or Panin.
Russia has previously protested vigorously to Washington about its extradition of Russian nationals from third party states, most notably in the case of convicted arms smuggler Viktor Bout, dubbed the Merchant of Death by US media.
