Moscow demands answers after FBI arrests Russian
Russia said Saturday it wanted an explanation from Washington over the arrest of one of its nationals, as Moscow continued to hold a US citizen for alleged espionage.
FBI agents arrested Dmitry Makarenko on December 29 on Saipan, a US island in the western Pacific and he had since been taken to Florida, a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
It did not detail the accusations against him but said the US authorities had failed to inform them of his arrest and they had only found out from his family.
Meanwhile, a top Russian diplomat on Saturday said the case of Paul Whelan, the US national detained in Moscow, was very serious.
Whelan, a security official at a US auto parts company and former US Marine, was arrested on December 28 "while carrying out an act of espionage", the FSB security service announced.
"The situation around Mr Whelan is very serious," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti news agency.
"He came to Russia, as we understand, to take measures to ...