Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov meets with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexiy II and representatives of different religions. The meeting has passed the private residence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: Pavel Smertin
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs Puts the Murderers of Russian Diplomats on the Wanted List
// Terrorism
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov yesterday said that the efforts to find the bodies of four Russian diplomats in Baghdad, killed by terrorist grouping “The Mujahideen Shura Council”, and return them to Russia are under way. Moscow intends to estimate the extent of responsibility of coalition forces for the tragedy. For now, it demanded that Iraq authorities and coalition forces find and punish the murderers.
“We have suffered a grievous loss. Our colleagues, employees of Russian embassy in Baghdad, fell victim to the raging of ruthless terrorism in Iraq,” said Sergey Lavrov yesterday. He promised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will support the families of the victims, and announced a minute of silence. He said Moscow will try to find the diplomats’ bodies so that they can be buried in Russia, and promised to find and prosecute the murderers.
Moscow partially blames Iraq authorities and coalition forces, saying they are responsible for security in Iraq. Russian State Duma plans to demand a thorough investigation of circumstances of kidnapping and murder of Russian diplomats.
Yet, it will be difficult to find and punish the murderers. The Mujahideen Shura Council is a cover grouping for several terrorist groups. Neither Russia, nor the U.S. have a well-developed agent network in Iraq. However, Iran, Jordan, Syria, and Israel can help, although the success in not guaranteed even in this case.
So far, Russia asked for an urgent meeting of UN Security Council to consider the tragedy with Russian diplomats. It is strange, though, that Moscow asked for the meeting only now, but not when hostages were still alive and could have been saved.
Olga Berezintseva
All the Article in Russian as of June 28, 2006
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