Russia has down-scaled the level diplomatic relations with Qatar following an incident with the Russian ambassador to the country, who was physically attacked by Qatari customs and security officers.
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Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko suffered an assault at Doha airport on November 29, on his return from a mission to Jordan. While passing through customs control he was attacked by customs security, which made an attempt to take away his diplomatic pouch. Titorenko resisted and was beaten, together with two other Russian diplomats welcoming the ambassador.
The next day Russian Foreign Ministry filed a note of protest to Qatar, demanding that official Doha apologize, but no such apology followed.
On November 4 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov officially informed Qatari Prime Minister and concurrently Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani that Moscow suspends diplomatic relations with Doha until demands of the Russian side are completed in full.
Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko will leave Qatar once he finishes a course of medical treatment as a result of the attack.
Earlier, the ambassador told RIA Novosti that at first he had been hoping the incident had occurred due to the incompetence of customs and security officers, who simply were not familiar with the Vienna Convention that allows diplomats to bring in diplomatic mail without having it x-rayed.
On top of that, the Russian diplomatic mission in Qatar has specially-issued permission not to subject its diplomatic mail to x-ray, but customs officers disregarded this exemption.
An unnamed Russian diplomat gave comments to RIA Novosti, linking the incident with the Russian position on the unrest in Syria.
Qatar has been consistently supporting sanctions against Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whereas Russia is acting against sanctioning Syria on all diplomatic levels, including the UN Security Council.
Russland/Qatar:Nach Angriff auf russischen Botschafter stellt das Land die Beziehungen zu Qatar ein!
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