"Of course, more global matters will be on top of the agenda of the meeting between Trump and Putin, but the issue of the United States’ kidnapping Russian citizens in thirds countries deserves discussion at the government level," Tarasov stated.
Yaroshenko has sent a letter to US President Donald Trump in which he compared his plight to that of the late US student Otto Warmbier, Tarasov added.
"In the final part of the letter, Kosntantin Yaroshenko compares his case with the case of US citizen Otto Warmbier who recently died upon returning to the United States from North Korea," Tarasov said. "He asks the US president for mercy and humaneness to transfer him to Russia."
Yaroshenko's health condition is stable, but he is not getting proper treatment for chronic diseases, Yaroshenko's lawyer Alexey Tarasov said.
"We continue to follow the health condition of Yaroshenko and how his rights are respected in the prison. His health condition is stable. There is no critical situation, but a number of chronic diseases don’t get satisfactory treatment in the prison," Tarasaov said.
Yaroshenko has claimed he was mistreated while in US custody, and also said his health has suffered significantly because the US authorities deny him proper medical care.
On Wednesday, the Izvestia newspaper reported that Yaroshenko had written a letter to US President Donald Trump asking to be transferred to Russia. Moreover, Yaroshenko’s family has appealed to Trump to extend the Russian pilot a pardon.
Yaroshenko was sentenced in a US court for conspiring to import cocaine in the United States worth more than $100-million. He was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and handed over to US authorities, prompting protests from Russia.
In a March letter to Sputnik, Yaroshenko said the US court ignored a lot of evidence that proved prosecutors and drug enforcement authorities had fabricated the case against him.
On May 21, Russia's High Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova sent an appeal to Trump to pardon Yaroshenko.
Moskalkova said she had met with the pilot’s wife, Viktoria, who informed her about the poor nutrition in the US prison where Yaroshenko is kept, and the limitation not to receive packages from his family. Moskalkova said On June 1, she expected an answer by the US administration in August.
