MOSCOW (Reuters) - The extradition of suspected arms smuggler Viktor Bout to the United States could undermine warming ties between Moscow and Washington, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said in an article published on Thursday.
Moscow has sharply criticized a Thai court’s ruling on Monday to extradite Bout, a Russian the United States accuses of trafficking weapons since the 1990s to dictators and conflict zones around the world.
“The problem is that the Bout case is an unfair and unfriendly gesture initiated by the United States,” Vladimir Kozin, deputy director of the ministry’s information and press department, wrote in an opinion article in The Moscow Times.
Calling Bout a “Russian businessman” who has Moscow’s “firm support,” he warned that “the ballyhoo created by Washington over him may inevitably affect Russian-U.S. relations to the detriment of the U.S. effort to ‘reset’ them.”
On Monday, Moscow called the extradition ruling politically motivated and vowed to seek Bout’s release and return to Russia, where he had lived with no apparent interference from authorities despite U.S. pressure for his arrest.
The English-language Moscow Times and the Foreign Ministry said Kozin’s letter expressed his own views. Nevertheless, it was the first specific public statement from a Russian official hinging that the prominent Bout case could be a blow to ties.
“The case is unfair, and Bout must be freed,” Kozin wrote at the end of the article.
The apparent free rein allowed Bout in Russia angered Washington and prompted speculation that he had protection from the state. If so, analysts say, Moscow might fear that he could give damaging evidence in a U.S. trial.
President Barack Obama began seeking a “reset” of ties with Moscow shortly after taking office in January 2009, a few months after long-deteriorating relations were driven to a post-Cold War low by Russia’s war with pro-Western Georgia.
Both countries have hailed a warmer atmosphere and concrete milestones such as a nuclear arms reduction treaty signed in March. A spy scandal that erupted two months ago was a chilly reminder of the Cold War, but did no apparent major damage after a swap of alleged agents eased tension.
Editing by Mark Heinrich
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