MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Moscow will seek from Egypt explanations for the arrest of Russian nationals suspected of an involvement in the activity of Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) and extremist activity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a session of the Federation Council upper house of the parliament on Monday.
"We have appealed more than 20 times with official notes, with the request to supply information about the reasons for the arrest, but there has been no response to any of the appeals. Verbally, they say the probe is classified, and our staffers are not allowed to attend any questioning, or court sessions held behind closed doors," the foreign minister said.
"We have appealed 24 times with a request to ensure consular access to our nationals, and only two requests were satisfied. We will first of all seek explanations for the reasons why they have found themselves in this situation," the top diplomat said.
Lavrov said that Russia is also seeking assistance from the Egyptian foreign and justice ministries to establish the whereabouts of Ingushetia Region’s student Dugiyev, who went missing in 2018. "A new note was sent a month-and-a-half ago, there has been no reaction as of yet. Our colleagues say that they know nothing about him. We will continue seeking attention to that subject," the foreign minister added.
Lavrov said that during the next contacts with the Egyptian counterpart, he would hand over "a new detailed official letter in this respect".
Russian nationals arriving in Egypt to receive religious education, were detained in Cairo in August 2018. Later, some of them were released. However the fate of five natives of Russia’s Ingushetia remained unknown. News came in April 2019 that five Russian nationals - four natives of Ingushetia, and a female native of Kyrgyzstan - were facing extremism charges.