Russia Slams US Comments on Jailed Oppositionist

Russia's Foreign Ministry has slammed statements by U.S. officials expressing concern over the alleged abduction and torture of Russian opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev.  Earlier, the press attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Joseph Kruzich, told Interfax that the United States had officially expressed concern to the Russian Foreign Ministry's commissioner for human rights, democracy and rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, over the issue and asked for a careful examination. The ministry responded: "We are surprised, to say the least, at these hasty expressions of 'anxiety.' . . . It is a court of law that will issue the definitive decision on whether he [Razvozzhayev] is guilty or not. For this reason, we consider the American advice to 'examine the issue carefully' to be inappropriate. For our part, we would recommend that our counterparts pay attention to well-known instances of torture in special CIA jails and to the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo for an indefinite time without trial or investigation, something that tramples upon all standards of international law," the ministry concluded.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/russia-and-former-soviet-union/russian-foreign-ministry-slams-us-comments-on-razvozzhayev-314954.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20081390
http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/newsline/AC231A7F3FB183F244257AA200567AD7 (document)