"The aircraft will take on board about 90 Russian workers of the Interenergoservis company and deliver them to Moscow by night," said a ministry official.
In his words, the second group of Russians (some 140 people) will be evacuated on Friday. Only a few company specialists will remain in Iraq. They will render assistance to two colleagues gravely wounded on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Russia's foreign ministry called on Russian journalists that decided to stay in Iraq to leave the country for the sake of their security. This was said at a RIA Novosti press conference by Russian foreign ministry official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko.
The diplomat stressed that "we can't make people leave Iraq, as they take their own decision." The Russian foreign ministry also recommends Russian companies working on contracts in Iraq not to send their specialists to the country in the near future, Yakovenko said.
In his words, as of today, besides embassy officials, there are over 240 Interenergoservis workers in Iraq, some 10 journalists and several people who were not registered by consulates and who work on contracts in different cities of Iraq.
In Yakovenko's words, after evacuation only Russian embassy officials, several Interenergoservis workers, and the ten journalists that don't plan to leave will remain in the country.
Yakovenko said that after the normalization of the situation in Iraq, Russian companies will be able to resume work on contracts in that country.
"Iraq is interested in Russians participating in the restoration of the country's energy industry," the diplomat stressed.
In his turn, Iraq's Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarrai told the Al-Iraqiya TV channel on Thursday that departure of the Russian specialists may have catastrophic consequences for the Iraqi economy.
Expressing regret in the wake of an attack on Interenergoservis specialists in Al Dora, which entailed human victims, the minister said he nevertheless intends to address the Russian company's management with a request that Russian specialists stay in Iraq and continue work on facilities to restore power plants in different regions of the country.
In the minister's words, attacks on foreign specialists engaged in restoration of the energy sphere in Iraq "aim at destroying the national power grid and thus placing the Iraqi economy in a very hard situation." The decision on the evacuation of Interenergoservis workers (the company is engaged in repairs and restoration work at Baghdad's heat and power plant) was taken by company management after an armed attack on a bus with its employees in Baghdad on Wednesday. As a result, two Russians died, and several people were wounded.
According to the latest data, the Russian emergencies ministry plane has headed for Moscow from Baghdad.
"On board the plane are 90 people, 85 of them Russians, four Ukrainians and a Belarussian. All of them are Interenergoservis workers, including several wounded people and the bodies of those killed as a result of yesterday's attack. The aircraft is to land at Ramenskoye airport outside Moscow at about 6.30 p.m. Moscow time," said an emergencies ministry representative.
