Moscow Hopes Finland to Reconsider Extraditing Russian Citizens to US

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that Finland would reconsider extraditing Maxim Senakh and Alexander Sergeev to the US.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow hopes Finland will reconsider extraditing Russian citizens Maxim Senakh and Alexander Sergeev to the United States, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"This development is deeply regrettable. We hope that measures taken by the Russians' lawyers will lead to the decision being reconsidered," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry slammed Washington’s practice of persecuting Russians outside of the United States, calling it an "abuse of law and a violation of internationally recognized procedural rules."

"We are counting on the Finnish authorities taking our position, which had been relayed to them many times, into the account," the statement read.

Senakh was temporarily detained in August in Finland on the request of the US Justice Department, accusing him of cybercrime. Washington and Helsinki have a mutual agreement of extradition in relation to crimes.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has previously called Senakh’s detention a witch hunt.