Qatari Terrorists

Russia went on the offensive after Qatari authorities filed murder charges against two Russian special-services employees accused of involvement in the February 13th car bombing that killed former Chechen acting President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev.

Acting Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who had earlier called the Qatari authorities' actions a "provocation," called in Qatar's ambassador to Russia, Saad Muhammed al-Kubeisi, to lodge a formal protest, "Vremya novostei" reported on 27 February. The Foreign Ministry accused the Qatari authorities of "not fulfilling their international obligations in the war on terrorism" and of having practically taken Yandarbiev under their "stewardship" by giving him freedom to meet with "representatives of various terrorist and extremist religious organizations" and to collect funds "for carrying out new terrorist attacks in different countries," "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 27 February. Presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii claimed that Yandarbiev had links to Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups and that Russia had requested Yandarbiev's extradition, but Qatar had not complied, RIA-Novosti reported on 26 February.