Did Yerevan take Russian citizen hostage?

A 30-year-old Russian Sergey Mironov has been detained at the Yerevan Airport on the US authorities' request.

His lawyer Karen Nersesyan said that he is accused of laundering $50 thousand and involvement in an illegal transfer of military technology. At the moment Mironov is in jail.

Nersesyan added that Mironov had no access to military technology and had visited the United States only once, in 2013.

Despite statements of the Armenian leadership that he was detained at Washington's request, the US State Department declined to comment on the incident. "We suggest that you contact the local authorities on this issue," RIA Novosti cited the US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau as saying.

Interpol also declined to comment the situation.

Detention of the Russian citizen in Armenia at the US request violate the international law, the member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Chairperson of the Commission on the Development of Public Diplomacy and Support for Compatriots Abroad, Elena Sutormina, said.

Sutormina suggested that the authorities in some countries "are trying to sit on two chairs," seeking "to please" Washington.

"And we see it with great regret. This is considering the fact that Russia is now actively assisting in the settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. We would not like to see such incidents in the future," the member of the Public Chamber noted.

The detention of Sergey Mironov was a complete surprise for his wife Julia. "My husband was in no way connected with the Americans and the United States. We have two small children. He works in an IT company in Moscow, he works Monday through Friday, from morning till evening. It is a complete shock for me, I do not understand how he could be linked to the United States," she said.

Today in Yerevan, presumably, official documents will be made public and a decision on Mironov's extradition to the United States will be made.