Wednesday, January 18 2017 14:21

ArmInfo. The US Department of State holds no specific information about detention of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin in Minsk.  

"First, I'd say this is really something for the relevant countries  to speak to, especially when you're talking about extradition  requests. That's really for them to speak to. Obviously, press  freedom is important to us, and we talk about it all the time. I  don't have any specific information with respect to this case, but  I'd refer you to the relevant countries to speak to that," John  Kirby, Spokesperson for the United States Department of State said at  daily press briefing on January 17. 

When asked whether the US is concerned with the issue of free  journalist movement, Mr. Kirby replied: "We are always concerned with  the issue of press freedom. That is something that we speak to almost  every day, sadly. We have to speak to it every day. So certainly, our  concern over the freedom of journalists to do their jobs remains very  robust, but I don't have any specific information on this case. And  as for - you're talking about foreign extradition requests. I don't  have - I just don't have any knowledge of it, and that's really not  something that would be appropriate for the State Department to speak  to anyway."

To note, in mid-December the citizen of the Russian Federation  Alexander Lapshin was arrested in the Republic of Belarus with the  purpose of extradition on the demand of Azerbaijan for visiting  Nagorno-Karabakh and making notes about those visits in his blog. The  General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus informed earlier that the  issue of extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan is being studied but no  decision has been made yet. 

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, stated at the annual  press conference in Moscow that Russia is against criminalization of  journalists or simply private persons visiting any region. "Second,  we are against extradition of Russian nationals arrested in any  country to third countries. We had a consular contact with Lapshin,  we know that he is also an Israeli citizen and Israeli diplomats had  a contact with him as well. We will take all the steps to settle this  situation within the respect to all the rights of the Russian  citizen, which is also an Israeli citizen," Lavrov accentuated. 

Meanwhile, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the  case of blogger Alexander Lapshin is being considered from the legal  point of view only.