Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s secret services to locate and kill the murderers of four Russian embassy staff who were kidnapped in Iraq, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
”The president gave the instruction to the Russian secret services to take all necessary steps to find and destroy the criminals who committed this evil deed,” a Kremlin official said, reading from a prepared statement.
”Russia would be grateful to all its friends for any information about the criminals who killed the Russian citizens in Iraq,” the official said.
The embassy employees were abducted when gunmen attacked their vehicle in the upmarket west Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansur on June 3. A fifth Russian citizen was killed during the kidnapping.
Moscow confirmed the deaths of the four Baghdad embassy staff after a gruesome internet video purportedly showed two of the men being executed.
An insurgent coalition led by al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for killing the men.
The hostage-takers had given Russia a 48-hour ultimatum to pull out of Russia’s war-torn province of Chechnya and free Muslim prisoners from Russian jails. Chechen rebels said they had nothing to do with the militant group in Iraq.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the Duma, unanimously passed a motion criticising the United States-led coalition in Iraq over the killings.
”The tragedy that occurred recently in Iraq was only possible because of the growing crisis in the country as the occupying powers increasingly lose control of the situation,” read the motion.
”All the responsibility for the situation in Iraq, including the security of its citizens and of foreign workers, lies with the occupying powers. We are convinced that they could have prevented the tragedy,” the Russian lawmakers said.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that he had spoken with US officials and had ”reiterated the responsibility of the coalition and the responsibility of the Iraqi government to do everything possible to investigate this case, to find the bodies … and make sure that these terrorists are brought to justice”.
Russia, which had close economic links with Saddam Hussein’s regime, opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The White House has joined other Western governments in sending condolences and condemning the killings.
White House spokesperson Tony Snow said Washington will continue to work with Moscow ”to defeat terrorism and bring the perpetrators of this act of violence to justice”.
The independent broadsheet Kommersant said on Tuesday that the embassy staff may have fallen foul of ”simple human weakness”, as they had been seized while stopping their vehicle — against embassy rules — to stock up on alcohol.
The killings are expected to be discussed at a meeting on Thursday in Moscow of foreign ministers of the powerful group of eight countries, which Russia is chairing for the first time this year. — AFP
