Qatar has arrested two Russian secret agents and charged them in the killing of an exiled Chechen leader there, prompting a sharply worded rebuke from Russia on Thursday that accused Qatari authorities of violating international law.
| Ah yes, the hallowed institution of international law ... |
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry denied any Russian involvement in the death of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former president of the Chechen republic, who was killed Feb. 13 when a bomb destroyed his car in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
| And rather conveniently killed after his jackboots had just boomed Moscow. Think there might be a connection? |
The statement called the arrests "a provocation" and was the first public acknowledgment that two men arrested by the authorities in Doha last week were not only Russian citizens but members of the secret services.
| Tap, tap, tap, my surprise meter still isn't broken ... |
"They were legally assigned to the Russian Embassy in Qatar, conducting analytical work in connection with countering international terrorism, without violating local legislation in any way," the acting foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, said in the statement.
| I think that a lot of nations employ those types of people. They call them "spies." |
The arrests — which Mr. Ivanov said involved "weapons and brute force" — threatened to worsen relations that had long been strained by Mr. Yandarbiyev's presence in Qatar. They also provided a rare window into the clandestine world of Russia's secret services and their efforts to choke off international support for Chechen separatists.
| Anyone else find it somewhat surreal all the efforts the Qatari interior ministry is going to to track down whoever boomed Yandarbiyev and yet they can't ever seem to bust Binny's delivery men? |
|