Putin: Russia will ‘never’ extradite citizens accused by US

Russia will “never” extradite any of the 13 Russians indicted by the United States for alleged election-meddling, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, even as he insisted they did not act on behalf of his government.

Putin’s comments in an NBC News interview illustrated the long odds that the Russian operatives will ever appear in US court to answer charges of running a secret social media trolling and targeted messaging operation to try to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The United States has no extradition treaty with Moscow and can’t compel it to hand over citizens, and a provision in Russia’s constitution prohibits extraditing its citizens to foreign countries.

“Never. Never. Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone,” Putin said.

Even if the Russians never face justice in the United States, the sweeping indictment served the added purpose of increasing the public’s awareness about the elaborate foreign campaign to meddle in American democracy, some legal experts claim.

For years, the Justice Department has supported indicting foreigners in absentia as a way to shame them and make it harder for them to travel abroad.