Argentine MP requests Putin’s help over prosecution of ex-president

Argentine MP Mayra Mendoza has requested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assistance in connection with the trials of Argentina’s senator and former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Mendoza, an MP for the Front for Victory Party, approached Putin after his speech at the Eurasian Women’s Forum in Russia’s St. Petersburg and handed a booklet over to him, a photo on her Facebook page showed. According to the MP, she drew the Russian leader’s attention by saying "Argentina needs help!"

"I managed to approach him [Putin] and hand a document over to him, which says about the degradation of judicial power and a crisis resulting from this, and also about the lack of the rule of law in Argentina and the use of legal mechanisms against political opponents of [Argentine president] Mauricio Macri, namely Cristina de Kirchner and her family," she wrote.

Cristina de Kirchner has been charged with complicity in embezzling state funds, in particular fraud in Argentina’s central bank, and impeding the investigation into a terrorist attack. The former president is also accused of profiteering and corruption. Cristina de Kirchner has called the prosecution politically motivated.