Moscow Denies Role in Qatar Assassination

Tensions escalated between Russia and Qatar yesterday when media in the Gulf state said prosecutors had alleged that Russia's defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, ordered the assassination of a Chechen leader in the capital, Doha, on February 13.

The allegation, which Moscow immediately said was "so ludicrous that it was not possible to comment on it", came after the trial of two Russians began for the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a former Chechen president.

Russian security services allege he was a member of al-Qaida who helped finance the Nord Ost theatre siege in Moscow in October 2002.

Yandarbiyev was killed when a remote-controlled device tore his jeep apart in Doha two months ago. The killing came a week after a suicide blast on the Moscow metro that killed 41 people.

The allegation appeared in a Qatari newspaper, al-Rayah, which said prosecution documents named Mr Ivanov, a former KGB officer and a hardliner tipped to succeed President Vladimir Putin, as having ordered the killing. It said Yandarbiyev's jeep had been tracked by a Russian satellite.

Russian analysts said the claims were absurd as the country's main intelligence services are not under Mr Ivanov's direct command and their satellites are not capable of such surveillance.

The FSB and the SVR, Russia's equivalents of MI5 and MI6, have repeatedly denied any role in the blast.

Dmitri Afanasyev, the Russian lawyer for the two men, said in preliminary hearings on Sunday they had pleaded not guilty. They face the death penalty if convicted. The Qatari media also named the two Russian men yesterday.

Russia's ministry of foreign affairs said at the time of their arrest the men were officers in the security services working at the embassy in Doha to gather information for the war against terrorism.

Another Russian, arrested at the same time, had a diplomatic passport and was released after a senior Russian official flew to Doha to negotiate.

Two Qatari wrestlers were simultaneously released from police custody in Moscow and returned to Doha.

The allegations add to the growing diplomatic claim and counter-claim over the pair. Doha has accused Moscow of "acting like the mafia" over the blast while Moscow has ridiculed the charges.

Western media reported the two men had confessed to the crime and said they smuggled the device in from Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels.

The Russian media has said a Qatari policeman, looking for car stereo thieves, saw two men of Slavic appearance near the Chechen's jeep, and hinted the incident was captured on video. Washington had also admitted sending a team of explosives experts to Doha to help the Qatari investigation, infuriating Moscow.

The next stage of the trial has been put back four weeks at the request of the defence.