Moscow Negotiates With GIs' Murderers

[Ryan Ruck]

Moscow Negotiates With GIs' Murderers

Seeks release of hostages from terrorists that tortured, killed 2 American soldiers

Seeking to free four Russian hostages, Moscow is negotiating with the al-Qaida-led terrorist group that tortured and murdered two U.S. soldiers.

The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, Sergei Mironov, said negotiations are ongoing with the Mujaheeden Shura Council, according to the English-language Moscow News.

The council, led by al-Qaida in Iraq, is an umbrella organization of five terrorist groups in the country.

"Negotiations are being conducted; they are being conducted in search of a solution to the problem," Mironov said. "Certain positions have been found in the negotiations, and they are now being realized."

The terrorist umbrella group took responsibility for the kidnapping and brutal murder of two U.S. soldiers, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Oregon.

Their mutilated bodies were found this week after they disappeared during a checkpoint attack. According to a web statement, the men were "slaughtered" by the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Russian diplomats were abducted by gunmen June 3 in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour. One diplomat was killed during the attack.

Moscow News' mention of negotiations, noted by blogger Jim Hoft, came in a story that focused on CNN's mistranslation of a message posted online by the council. CNN apologized for reporting the four diplomats had been killed. The message actually said the terrorists had decided to kill the Russians.

On its website, the council said the Russian embassy workers would be killed after Moscow failed to meet the group's demand to pull troops out of Chechnya. The group said it would give Moscow 48 hours to act.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged the terrorists "not to take an irreparable step and preserve the lives of our men."

A government's statement argued the diplomats "are representatives of the Russian people, which has never and nowhere waged a war against Islam."

[Backstop]

I'd also like to negotiate with them - from 700 meters through some decent glass.

[Ryan Ruck]

Oh look... A convenient excuse for Russia to send (more) special forces into Iraq!

Putin Orders Forces To Destroy Hostage Killers

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia’s special services to hunt down and “destroy” the killers of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, the Kremlin said.

Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service — the main successor to the Soviet KGB — later said that everything would be done to ensure that the killers “do not escape from responsibility,” the Interfax news agency reported.

“The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals who killed Russian diplomats in Iraq,” the Kremlin press service said in a brief statement.

It did not specify what special forces might be involved. Agents of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service could be considered special forces.

The order followed Monday’s confirmation by the Foreign Ministry that four Russians Embassy workers who were abducted in early June had been killed.

Russian special forces already in Iraq?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov declined to say whether any Russian special forces currently were in Iraq but noted that there are “people responsible for security at the embassy” in Baghdad.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, told The Associated Press that “We don’t have real special forces in Iraq.”

Putin also said Russia “will be grateful to all its friends for any information on the criminals,” the Kremlin said.

The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a statement earlier Wednesday that decried the murders and said that “occupying” countries are losing control in Iraq.

Russia has strongly opposed the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq.

The statement by the State Duma “deplores the death of our compatriots ... expresses profound indignation over the fact of their brutal murder and strongly denounces the criminals who committed that heinous crime.”

‘Deepening crisis’

It said the abduction and killing were possible because “of the deepening crisis in Iraq, while the occupying countries are losing control over the situation, and terror and violence are becoming the order of the day in that country.”

Two Russian intelligence agents were convicted in Qatar of a 2004 car bombing that killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a Chechen rebel leader who had taken refuge there. A Qatari court had said the killing was carried out with the backing of “Russian leadership” and coordinated between Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Qatar. The agents later were returned to Russia to serve out their sentences there.

Unlike the attack on Yandarbiyev, which took place in a relatively open country, penetrating militant networks in chaotic Iraq could be a formidable task for the Russians.

The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov, said last week that Russian officials had been negotiating for the diplomats’ release, a possible indication that they had identified the kidnappers of knew a reliable intermediary.

Alexander Golts, a defense analyst with the online magazine Yezhednevny Zhurnal, said, “I suspect the Russian authorities have a very murky understanding of who committed these crimes — if they had a better understanding they would have tried to do something while the hostages were still alive.”

Putin’s ‘copycat’ statement?

Felgenhauer said Putin’s order could be more a statement to bolster his image at home than a serious operational decision.

“It’s a copycat of George Bush’s statements after 9/11, that ‘we will hunt them down,”’ he said.

But Felgenhauer also noted the attack on Yandarbiyev and “taking that into account, it’s possible that someone will end up dead.” He said the most likely strategy would be for the special forces to send in a special “hit squad” under diplomatic cover.

A Russian special operation in Iraq could be a blow to the already-scarred image of U.S. forces in Iraq and the nascent Iraqi security forces, but Felgenhauer speculated that the Americans wouldn’t seriously object if Russian forces hunted down the killers.

“No one considers the guys with guns in Iraq as friends,” he said.

[Ryan Ruck]

What a surprise…

Moscow Blames U.S. For Envoys' Killings

Russian lawmakers yesterday unanimously blamed the United States for the deaths of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, highlighting growing tensions between the two countries ahead of a meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Moscow today.

Moscow also demanded in a proposed U.S. Security Council resolution that coalition forces in Baghdad provide better security for diplomats. The United States and Britain resisted the resolution.

President Vladimir Putin instructed Russian security services to find the killers and "destroy" them.

"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 a motion unanimously approved by the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

"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 this tragedy," the lawmakers said hours before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Moscow for today's G-8 ministerial meeting.

Moscow confirmed Monday that terrorists had killed the four diplomats, beheading two of them in an Internet video, after Russia refused their demand that its forces leave the breakaway Muslim republic of Chechnya. An insurgent group led by al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.

The Kremlin press service said yesterday that Mr. Putin "has ordered Russia's secret services to take all necessary steps to find and destroy the criminals who committed this evil deed."

It did not say which Russian special forces are in Iraq or under what authority they would be acting in that country.

In New York, U.S. and British diplomats objected to language in a Russian draft resolution that said the Security Council "calls upon the government of Iraq and the Multinational Forces to undertake measures aimed at enhancing the security of foreign diplomatic missions in Iraq and their staff."

Russian diplomats said talks on the text were continuing, and Reuters news agency quoted U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton as saying, "They're going to have a statement. It's just a question of when."

Diplomats told Reuters that the Iraqi government, which is not a member of the 15-nation council, also considered the language to be an insult. Any such council statement requires unanimous approval.

The tension over Iraq is just one of several issues likely to cloud the talks among foreign ministers from the G-8, which is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

"Given Russia's latest trend of reasserting itself as a world power, I don't think the atmosphere will be very easy," said Masha Lipman, a political analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that the ministers had "agreed to address the issue of ongoing conflicts, ... notably the Middle East settlement, Iran's nuclear programs and the nuclear problems of the Korean Peninsula."

He added that Iraq and Afghanistan would feature prominently.

Mrs. Lipman said Russian officials will be eager to gauge whether the G-8 leaders intend to repeat Western criticisms of the state of democracy in Russia at next month's summit in St. Petersburg.

"Russia is certainly seeking to avoid any criticism of its domestic policies and its policies on the former countries of the U.S.S.R. in St. Petersburg," she said. "Russia will be trying to find out whether the leaders of the other countries are in the mood to make this event one where they will find fault with Russia."

Miss Rice said that tactics used by Russia in an energy dispute with Ukraine last winter did not befit a responsible member of the world economy, and Vice President Dick Cheney accused Moscow last month of backsliding on democracy and using its energy resources as a tool for "intimidation and blackmail" against its neighbors.