US airports don't have such a thing as a transit zone. Even if you're flying to a third country via an US airport, you need to go through immigration, collect y

US airports don't have such a thing as a transit zone. Even if you're flying to a third country via an US airport, you need to go through immigration, collect your luggage, go through customs, re-check your luggage and then endure the whole security circus once again. This is not the case in most any other airport on the globe, where you usually remain in the transit zone if you're travelling to a third country. That said: I agree with you that the Russian statement is likely a cop out. If they want to arrest you they wouldn't give a shit if you're in the transit zone or not. That probably goes for every other country too.