The hijacking drama’s over. Russia wants passengers returned, hijackers extradited

The Russian side is conducting negotiations with the Saudis about returning of the passengers and a possible extradition of the hijackers of the Tu-154 jet. As has already been reported, the jet, carrying 160 passenger onboard, was hijacked yesterday as it was taking off from the Istanbul airport in Turkey heading for Moscow, Russia. Apperantly, the plane was forced to fly to Afghanistan, but for some reason it landed in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The hijackers are believed to be ethnic Chechens. Now that the hostage crisis seems to have been resolved positively as a result of a decisive steps taken by the Saudi side, the Russian side is reportedly ready to send 2 airplanes to Saudi Arabia – one for the passenger, the other for the hijackers.