Viktor Bout sentencing postponed until March 28

The United States is hoping that Russia will step up its efforts to help resolve the current political and humanitarian crises in Syria now that the presidential elections in Russia are over, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. “It is something that we expect to take up virtually immediately with the Russian side, and our hope is that now that these elections are behind them that they will join all of us in doing more to push for humanitarian relief for the people of Homs and the people throughout Syria who are suffering at the hands of the regime,” Nuland told reporters on Monday. Washington has consistently criticized Russia’s lack of cooperation with international community in attempts to stop the ongoing violence in Syria, which is torn by clashes between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces. Syria has been the scene of continuous anti-government protests for nearly a year. According to the United Nations, more than 7,500 people have died in the unrest. Russia and China have twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria that they believe could lead to a military operation against Syrian government forces as a repetition of “the Libyan scenario.” Both countries have, however, backed calls for humanitarian aid to be allowed to the worst-hit areas. Washington insists that Russia could be key to resolving the SyA New York court has postponed the sentencing of convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout until March 28, a member of Bout’s defense team told RIA Novosti. “U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin has moved Viktor Bout’s sentencing date to March 28 on his defense team’s request,” Andrei Garkusha said on Monday. The sentencing was originally scheduled for March 12. According to Garkusha, Bout’s lawyer Albert Dayan has asked the court to give him more time to prepare his remarks on the sentencing. Prosecutors have not yet determined the length of the prison term they would demand for Bout. Bout, who has denied all charges against him, faces from 25 years to life in prison. The 45-year-old former Russian military officer, known as the Merchant of Death, was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States in November 2010 after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons. On November 2 last year, the jury of the Federal District Court of New York unanimously found Bout guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. officials and citizens, of acquiring and intending to use anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to terrorists. Bout has been recently transferred to a “general population” prison in Brooklyn after being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan since his extradition from Thailand 15 months ago. “We have no complaints about Bout’s current conditions in the Brooklyn prison,” Garkusha said.ian crisis because of Moscow’s influence with Syrian authorities.