I do not believe anything coming from Russia

[tulipsandroses]

I do not believe that they are so much more adept at finding drugs that was missed at airports in other countries.

I refuse to give this corrupt government the benefit of the doubt.

Before BG, there was Marc Fogel who was sentenced to 14 years. He should be included in any swap. Before Marc, there was Naama Issachar.An American-Israeli citizen , who was sentenced to 7.5 years before she was traded for a Russian cyber criminal.

They all have almost identical situations. Somehow the Russians were able to find drugs that got missed at other airports before they arrived in Russia.

I will wait to hear BG and Marc tell their own story when they are no longer under duress. But even then, I suspect they may be prevented from telling the truth as maintaining their guilt may be a condition of the swap.

https://mobile.twitter.com/sumlenny/status/1553310271921442816

[Walleye]

1. You could never go wrong by assuming that the Russians are being dishonest

[marble falls]

2. It goes without saying. It's not a nice place at all,

[RKP5637]

3. Yep, believing anything coming from Russia is like believing anything coming from Trump! n/t

[Sogo]

4. Safe to say that she is just being set up to be used as a bargaining chip.

F Putin.

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. That's the entire purpose of jailing.

To be used as bargaining chips to get real Russian criminals swapped out. The US should ban all US citizens from going to Russia to avoid these show trials in the future. If they want to get around around the US ban by going via 3rd state entry points, that would be on them and they can pay the consequences.

[tulipsandroses]

6. I agree, that travel should be banned

If they want to go to Russia by any other means, then they travel at their own peril.

The case of the Russian cyber criminal appears to be a 3 way deal between Russia, Israel and the USA.
He was wanted in the USA, captured in Israel. Russia tried to bargain with Israel to release him. When they didn’t they found drugs on an American Israeli citizen. What a damn coincidence!!!

Burkov was arrested in 2015 on an international warrant while he was visiting Israel, and over the ensuing four years the Russian government aggressively sought to keep him from being extradited to the United States. When Israeli authorities turned down requests to send him back to Russia — supposedly to face separate hacking charges there — the Russians then imprisoned a young Israeli woman on trumped-up drug charges in a bid to trade prisoners.

As the news outlet Haaretz reported in October, Naama Issachar was arrested while changing planes in Russia on her way home from a yoga course in India. Russian police said they found approximately 10 grams of marijuana in Issachar’s bag. Issachar denied smuggling drugs, saying she had not sought to enter Russia during her layover and had no access to her luggage during her brief stay in the Russian airport.

Haaretz noted that the Russian government pressed Israel to exchange Burkov for Issachar. When Israel’s supreme court cleared the way for Burkov’s extradition to the United States, Issachar was found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to 7.5 years in jail.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/01/russian-cybercrime-boss-burkov-pleads-guilty/

And if there were any doubts Issachar was jailed for use as a political pawn, Russian President Vladimir Putin erased those by pardoning her in January 2020, just hours after Burkov pleaded guilty in the United States.