Qatar aims to revive ties with Russia

Doha: Qatar's foreign minister started a four-day visit to Russia yesterday, Qatar News Agency reported, in a bid to improve bilateral ties after a two-year stalemate in the relationship between the two countries.

Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani, Qatar's foreign minister and first deputy premier, will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of the Security Council Igor Ivanov, among other top officials.

The visit is particularly important for the two countries whose bilateral ties were severely strained in early 2004 following the assassination in Doha of former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a separatist guerrilla leader linked by Moscow to Al Qaida.

A Qatari court charged two Russian citizens with the murder, Anatoly Belashkov and Vasily Pugachev, who worked with the Russian embassy, and sentenced them to 25 years in prison. The incident caused a diplomatic crisis that ended only in December 2004, when the two convicts were extradited to Russia following intense negotiations.

According to Russian media sources, Russia committed to enhance economic and security ties with Qatar in return for the two agents, but little happened over the past two years.

"Relations between the two countries after the trial for the murder of Yandarbiyev remained practically unchanged," commented Russian daily Kommersant yesterday.

It said Vladimir Putin also promised to visit Qatar, a pledge that may be fulfilled early next year. "The Qatari diplomat is here to remind the Russians of the promises they made two years ago."

Talks will focus on cooperation in the natural gas industry, defence and security.