Moscow works to return Russians detained in Qatar home, says Foreign Ministry

Moscow is doing its best to release the Russians detained in Qatar, the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said at a conference in RIA Novosti.

"As to the situation with the Russians detained in Qatar, the Russian party is doing its best to bring them home," he said.

When asked about the role of the Americans in the detention, Yakovenko recalled that Washington had already officially announced what assistance it had rendered.

"In this case it was identification of explosives," he added.

In the early hours of February 19 the Qatari special services in Doha arrested three Russian citizens. One of them, who had a diplomatic passport, was later released and returned home.

The Qatari authorities accuse the Russians of involvement in the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a leader of Chechen separatists.

Yandarbiyev was killed on February 13, in a car explosion in Doha where he had lived for several years.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly announced that the Russian citizens were not involved in the murder and insisted on their being released and returned home.