Moscow: Russia on April 2 summoned US Ambassador in Moscow to protest the repeated
bombardment of residential areas in Baghdad where the Russian Embassy is situated
and demanded to avert steps, which could risk the lives of its diplomats in the
Iraqi capital.
US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow was summoned after the residential area of Baghdad,
where the Russian Embassy is located, was bombed several times on April 2, according
to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement.
"Russia has demanded that the US authorities take urgent and exhaustive measures to
prevent such dangerous and unacceptable incidents from happening in the future," the
statement said.
In a similar demarche, Russian Ambassador to US Yuri Ushakov has lodged protest with
the US State Department in Washington, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko told Mayak radio.
According to the local media reports, 15 Russian diplomats are holed up in the Iraqi
capital and two special "zaslon" (cover) commando teams of the SVR (Foreign
Intelligence Service) and GRU (military intelligence) were in Baghdad for evacuation
of secret documents.
The media in Moscow also did not rule out that Russian intelligence agencies were in
the fray with the American CIA and British MI-6 to grab Saddam Hussein's secret
police archives.
Earlier, Moscow lodged protest over alleged 'threatening' of its diplomats by US
Ambassador Vershbow, who told Russian media that Russia is risking the lives of its
diplomats in Baghdad.
PTI
