Russia Calls on US to Ensure Legal Rights of Alleged Spy Buryakov

Russia continues to work to provide Russian national Buryakov charged in the US over a conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government with essential consular and legal assistance, Russian human rights ombudsman said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow calls on the United States to ensure that Evgeny Buryakov, the Russian national charged over a conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, is provided with legal rights, the Russian Foreign Ministry human rights ombudsman said Thursday.

"We continue to work to provide him [Buryakov] with essential consular and legal assistance. We are seeking from the American side to ensure his legal rights and interests, including procedural rights. Of course, the aim is to bring our citizen to his motherland," Konstantin Dolgov said.

On Wednesday, Buryakov pleaded not guilty to charges over acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The next hearing is scheduled for March 26.

Prosecutors claim that Buryakov, 39, Igor Sporyshev, 40, and Viktor Podobny, 27, plotted to gather economic intelligence in the United States for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service's facility and to recruit New York residents in a scheme that started in 2012.

Buryakov was arrested in New York in January while Sporyshev and Podobny had already left the United States and so were not detained.