Envoy to Demand Improvement of Conditions for Russians Jailed in US at White House Meeting

The ambassador declined to specify what the White House meeting would be about or provide any details

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov Denis Akishev/TASS

BUTNER /North Carolina/, November 15. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov plans to raise the issue of softening the conditions of Russians jailed in the US at a meeting with White House officials, as he himself told reporters after visiting Russian citizen Roman Seleznev in prison in Butner, North Carolina.

"Tomorrow (on Tuesday - TASS) I will be at the White House to discuss other things but I will definitely raise the issue of the inhumane imprisonment conditions of Russian nationals," the envoy pointed out.

"I have repeatedly told you that it is a big concern for us, we would like as few Russians as possible to remain jailed in the US <...> and the hunt for Russians to end. The main thing for us is to make sure that there are no Russians left in US prisons," Antonov noted.

The ambassador declined to specify what the White House meeting would be about or provide any details. However, he emphasized that Russian diplomats would continue to do their best to improve the conditions of their fellow countrymen imprisoned in the US.

Seleznev case

Roman Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Maldives’ capital of Male on July 5, 2014, and taken to a jail on the island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Guam’s district court refused to release the Russian and ruled that he should be deported to Seattle.

In August 2016, a jury in Seattle convicted Seleznev of 38 out of 40 counts of cybercrime. He was charged with hacking into the databases of some 200 US companies. On April 21, Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $170 mln.

In September 2017, prosecutors in the US state of Georgia, who had also brought charges against Seleznev, announced that the Russian citizen had pleaded guilty to colluding to carry out a cyberattack on the Worldpay company providing payment services to banks. In Nevada, Seleznev was accused of having been involved in crimes since 2009 as part of the Carder Internet group whose members committed computer crimes linked to stealing credit card numbers and personal information of bank clients.

In December 2017, the US Department of Justice announced that Seleznev had been handed a 14-year prison term based on charges brought against him in Georgia and Nevada and would serve his sentence alongside his 27-year prison term.