Russian authorities have abused and beaten citizens of the country after they were released by the US from Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch announced.

The organization said that this came against US policy of cutting a diplomatic deal with the home countries of former prisoners before handing them over.

"What happened to the former detainees is pretty standard for a lot of suspects in police custody in Russia," Carroll Bogert, associate director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "But that's just the point. The US government knew these men would likely be tortured and sent them back to Russia anyway."

US detained seven Russians in Afghanistan in 2002 and kept them in the Guantanamo Bay prison for two years. When they were released to Russia, the abuse over the exonerated prisoners continued.

"At the airport they dragged us down the runway by our feet through the snow and kicked us," former inmate Airat Vakhitov told Human Rights Watch.

"When they brought us on the plane (for an onward journey) they kicked us again. They asked us who was wounded and whoever said they were wounded got kicked on their wounds."

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