Russian Embassy to Issue Complaint to US Over Prison Meeting With Vinnik - Ambassador Antonov

WASHINGTON, November 4 (Sputnik) - The Russian Embassy in the United States plans to issue a complaint to the US government over their failure to provide adequate conditions during the meeting with Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik in a prison in California, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told reporters.

Earlier on Thursday, Antonov visited Vinnik at the prison in San Francisco where he is being detained.

"I will come to Washington, we will write to the State Department and I will express my negative attitude to my colleagues from the White House. We have a written consent to have a contact with our compatriot, we consider the situation that has happened now simply unacceptable," Antonov said on Thursday.

Despite the long and difficult coordination through the State Department and the White House, the prison administration did not allow Vinnik to meet Russian diplomats in the same room, forcing them to talk through a glass window, Antonov said.

The US government accuses Vinnik of financial crimes, including money laundering through his cryptocurrency trading platform BTC-e. Prosecutors allege the platform enabled criminal activity by obscuring and anonymizing transactions and sources of funds. Vinnik denies the charges against him.