US-Russia prisoner swop on the cards

MOSCOW: Russia was ready for dialogue with the US on the possible exchange of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko and businessman Viktor Bout for US prisoners in Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights ombudsman, Konstantin Dolgov, said yesterday.

“If the US government will agree to a discussion of international and legal opportunities for the return of our citizens, we are absolutely ready to conduct this dialogue.

“We are ready for professional, honest, calm and substantive discussion in order to solve these issues important to us and to our citizens,” Dolgov told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

Despite Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov’s confirmation last week of Moscow’s proposal to exchange Bout and Yaroshenko for US prisoners, Dolgov said: “We have not reached that stage due to the fault of US authorities.”

Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine worth more than $100 million (R1.3 billion) into the US, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and subsequently extradited to the US.

Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a joint operation between Thai and US authorities, who accused him of conspiring to kill US nationals by allegedly agreeing to supply Colombian militants with weapons.

He is serving a 25-year sentence in an Illinois prison. – Sputnik