The Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the four men arrested over a drunken high-speed car race in Geneva, which left a Swiss man severely injured, are Russian citizens.
"The four Russian citizens, according to the Swiss authorities, have been released on bail," ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said, adding that "the preliminary information which we have received is quite limited."
He said representatives of Russia's Consulate General in Geneva are studying the situation "in close cooperation with their Swiss colleagues."
The Russians were reportedly racing a Lamborghini, a Bugatti, a Mercedes and a Porsche at over 220 km an hour (about 150 miles an hour) on a highway by Lake Geneva last week. The Lamborghini driver hit a Volkswagen driven by a 70-year-old Swiss citizen, who received head injuries and is still in hospital.
Tribune de Geneve said on Tuesday the patient has been transferred from intensive care and is in a stable condition.
The paper earlier said the 22-year-old Russian was driving under the influence of alcohol. He was also hospitalized, but no information has been released on his state of health.
According to the paper, the Russian, whose name has not been disclosed, is registered in the Canton of Geneva, and holds a Russian driving license which is not valid in Switzerland.
MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti)
The Russian daily Kommersant cited a Swiss police source as saying two of the boy racers were sons of the tycoon Telman Ismailov, who opened an ultra luxury hotel on Turkey's Mediterranean this summer.
Kommersant said the Ismailovs helped the Lamborghini driver to get out of the car after the crash and fled the scene without waiting for police to arrive.
The two have been questioned and released and are believed to have left Switzerland for Turkey. People in Ismailov's entourage have declined to comment on the incident, the paper said.
