MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - A group of 70 Tajik citizens subject to extradition from Russia did not show up at the Chklalovsky airfield in the Moscow region overnight to Friday to board a plane home, chief of the Air Force press service Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"An IL-76 Candid post and baggage military-transport plane that was to take the first group of 70 Tajik nationals home left the Chkalovsky airfield for Dushanbe strictly on time at 1:30 a.m. Moscow time (2230 GMT)," Drobyshevsky said.
Media reports that the migrants' departure did not take place due to the plane's technical failure do not correspond to reality, he stressed.
"We do not know the true reason for the delay in the deportation of the Tajik citizens," the colonel said.
The group consists of people detained at construction sites of the Moscow region and subsequently sentenced to extradition by the Khimki and Podolsk courts. The second group is to be sent to Tajikistan on November 22.
Expenses on the extradition of registration rules violators are covered by the Moscow region administration. They amounted to RUB1.5m (USD47,116).
Extradition from Russia is one of the measures applied to registration rules violators. By current, some 350 foreigners have been extradited from Russia.