NO ANTI-RUSSIAN BIAS, SAYS MP AS QATAR COPS TAKE TV REPORTERS

MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - It is too early now to assume whatever anti-Russian bias in Qatar as its police has detained a Russian television crew. It is a sheer misunderstanding over formalities, and the men will certainly be released as soon as relevant details surface, Russian MP Konstantin Kosachev said to Novosti. He leads the international affairs committee at the State Duma, parliament's lower house.

Meanwhile, emotions are seething round the affair, and Russia will see whatever procrastination as deliberately made to whip up the scandal even worse, he warned.

The police detained Dmitri Shtokolov, reporter of the REN-TV news programme 24, and camera Maxim Yevdokimov today in the Doha law court during hearings on the case of another two Russian nationals, suspected assassins of Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Policemen have grudges against them as they have come to cover the case with no accreditation papers.

Shtokolov and Yevdokimov appeared in Doha yesterday, and intended to stay throughout the week, into April 17. They had proper entry visas, issued by the Qatari Embassy to Russia, the Moscow-based REN-TV says in a press statement.