Moscow is outraged by Lithuania's decision to extradite a Russian national to the United States.
Lithuania on Wednesday fulfilled a U.S. request to extradite alleged arms dealer Dmitry Ustinov. Ustinov, 46, was detained at Vilnius Airport in Lithuania on April 15 after he arrived from the U.S. to purportedly negotiate a deal to sell night-vision equipment used by the U.S. military.
We are "outraged by the fact that American special services and law enforcement agencies are still trying to legitimize the practice of arresting and detaining Russian nationals in third countries on frivolous grounds," said Konstantin Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry's commissioner for human rights, in a statement posted on the ministry's website.
Moscow will continue providing assistance to Dolgov to make sure his rights are upheld and help get him back to Russia as soon as possible, the statement said.
On July 22, a Vilnius court ordered Dolgov to be extradited to the U.S., where he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of money laundering and smuggling export-restricted military equipment.
Ustinov, whose detention was based on an arrest warrant from the U.S. state of Delaware, pleaded not guilty in court.
