Russia is not going to extradite Kerimov

Russia Prosecutor General’s office is not going to extradite deliver the Russian oligarch over to Belarus.

“The position of Russia Prosecutor General’s office on extraditing its citizens to foreign countries remains unchanged. According to our Constitution we do not extradite citizens of the Russian Federation to foreign countries”, - deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Zviagintsev claimed on Thursday answering to Interfax’s question on the possibility of Kerimov’s extradition by Belarus’ request.

Answering to the qualifying question of whether the position of the Russian prosecutor’s office may change in case the Belarusian colleagues provide weighty arguments, one of the heads of Prosecutor General’s office said: “No. We make no exceptions, including for allied states”.

Zviagintsev also said that he kept in contact with Belarusian colleagues on the issue of Kerimov case’s investigation.

“I had a phone conversation with the representatives of Belarus Prosecutor General office’s leadership, although before the start of the conference of the International Prosecutors Conference”, - the deputy Prosecutor General said.

In one of his speeches at the conference Zviagintsev brought up the problem of extradition and its legal aspects. He noted that on this issue Russia followed the principle “either extradite or put on trial”, which meant that Russian authorities, while not extraditing their citizens, were nevertheless ready to hold people, who committed crime abroad, responsible.