Russia using all links to release diplomats in Iraq - senator
05/06/2006 17:18
MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is using all its connections with the Iraqi government to secure the release of its diplomats abducted in Baghdad Saturday, a senior Russian senator said Monday.
Unidentified assailants attacked the Russian Embassy employees in the Iraqi capital, killing one Russian diplomat and kidnapping four others.
Mikhail Margelov, head of the upper chamber's international affairs committee, said: "Russia has many links with representatives of the Iraqi government, and the main political parties and movements in the country."
He urged all Iraqis who remember the aid provided by Russia to the country to help in the search for the diplomats.
Margelov said the kidnapping should not affect friendly relations between Russia and Iraq, as the diplomats "were abducted by international terrorists."
"I can hardly imagine that there is a threat to the life and freedom of Russian nationals coming from the majority of the Iraqi population," he said. "This is either a foreign provocation, or blackmail."
According to the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, the assailants killed diplomat Vitaly Titov and kidnapped third secretary Fyodor Zaitsev, along with employees Rinat Agliulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedoseyev.
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