American students released after being put on trial in Russia

Four attendees of an international leadership conference were detained, interrogated and put on trial.



Four American students who went to Russia for a youth conference are safe back home in the Bay Area after they were detained, interrogated and put on trial for allegedly having "the wrong visas."

Bay Area Students Return After Being Interrogated, Put On Trial In Russia

The four students -- Liana Randazzo, 27, Quyen Ngo, 24, Jennifer Phan, 21, and Sterling Winter, 18 -- were supposed to be in Russia for two weeks for an international leadership conference, as representatives of the California Association of Student Councils. They were attending a closed-session meeting in St. Peterburg when Russian police and immigration officials barged in and demanded to see their visas.

John Yoo is not welcome in Russia

I don't know if John Yoo had plans to travel to Russia any time soon, but he just made the Russian government's shit list, so that's out. In response to American sanctions imposed on Russians accused of rights violations, Moscow published a list of 18 current and former American officials who will now be barred from entry into Russia: Russia Bars 18 Americans After Sanctions by U.S.

The list includes Americans who, according to Russia's Foreign Ministry, are responsible for "the legalization of torture," "unlimited detention," and/or violating the rights of Russian citizens abroad. This includes Yoo, who is perhaps best known as the primary author of the Bush Administration's torture memos.

Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, also found himself on the barred list. Bharara oversaw prosecution of the case against Viktor Bout, the convicted Russian arms smuggler now serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to sell weapons to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group.