Mr. Oganesyan is supervising kidnap-related information collection and analyses on order of Victor Khristenko, federal Minister of Industry and Energy. His opinion has reached Novosti from the ministerial PR centre.
The three ill-fated men were working in Iraq for the Russian-based InterEnergoService Co. Unknown criminals shot at their car, Monday afternoon. Alexei Konorev, 44, died on the spot. Andrei Mescheryakov, 34, and Alexander Gordienko, 28, were taken hostage. Mescheryakov had had a long Iraqi working record, while Konorev and Gordienko arrived in the country a few days before the tragedy, Evgeni Loginov, company transnational project manager, said to Novosti.
"Things are very complicated in Iraq, and are unlikely to get any better within months. It is terribly dangerous to keep our people there. Human safety is top priority. Russians must evacuate as soon as possible, insists Sergei Oganesyan.
He does not think, however, that Russian-based companies ought to give up future-oriented Iraqi contracts. "As for our ensuing partnership with Iraq, I am duly bearing in mind numerous projects built their with our assistance. As soon as the situation allows it, we must revive related contracts to develop and update those projects. The contracts are economically essential for Iraq. Our companies need them, too-considering all previous investments." Contract work will not go on before exhaustive guarantees are made for Russian employees' safety, Mr. Oganesyan emphasised.
"We must carefully reconsider all our contracts from the point of their present-day importance. No business interests can matter more than human lives. We demand Iraqi authorities to vouch Russians' safe work." Russian employees, in their turn, are to maintain stringent safety arrangements, the official pointed out. The situation demands strict regulations of their conduct. The Russian personnel ought to be confined to cantonments, which offer greater safety.
