Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said Yerevan does not rule out taking its dispute with Russia over the management of the South Caucasus Railway to an international court if the issue cannot be resolved through negotiations. At the same time, he stressed that the Armenian authorities hope to settle the matter through talks.
On 13 February 2004, the second president of the Chechen Republic, Ichkeria Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, was killed in Qatar. He was blown up in a car.
The perpetrators were members of the Russian special services. At the time of the explosion, along with Yandarbiyev, his 13-year-old son, Daoud, was in the car with two guards who died.
Three days after the attack, Qatari law enforcers were able to apprehend and later convict the murderers, allegedly members of the Defense Ministry’s GRU. The Russian authorities were able to agree and withdraw the bombers, who were greeted in their homeland as heroes. Unofficial figures indicate that Qatar has received multi-million dollar compensation. On February 26, 2004, Mr. Ivanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, admitted that the convicted persons belonged to the Russian special services.