The militants who kidnapped two Russians and an Italian in Syria are demanding a ransom of $700 thousand. The Russian authorities will most likely agree to these conditions, experts say. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry strongly recommends that citizens refrain from visiting Syria, observers remind.

They demand $700 thousand for the Russians and Italians kidnapped in Syria. The Kommersant newspaper learned about this. Viktor Gorelov, Abdessattar Hassoun and Mario Belluomo were captured by militants this week near the city of Tartus. The engineers were going to the Hmisho Steel plant, from whose owners they are demanding money. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that it is making every effort to free their compatriots. Political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev is confident that Moscow can agree to the ransom.

“As a rule, the state, even if it pays a ransom, never publicly announces it. Because this may encourage terrorists to take hostages for commercial purposes. This situation has repeatedly arisen in connection with hostage-taking by Somali pirates.

I think that Russia, to one degree or another, will take part in this situation, because the situation around Syria is extremely sensitive for Russia, and the Russian government cannot afford to lose face in this situation,” he said.

Most likely, the issue of hostages in Syria will be resolved diplomatically, experts say. There will be no political will for a military operation, says Alexey Filatov, vice-president of the international veterans association "Alpha".

“Theoretically, Moscow can go for a forceful solution, but, unfortunately, such a practice does not exist at all, and, probably, everything here depends not on capabilities, but on desire. I think that it is unlikely that our Foreign Ministry will express such a desire and will recommend to our authorities. Most likely, this problem will not be solved by force, although I personally deeply regret this. The time has come to show our strength not only in words, but also in deeds,” he says.

Given the situation in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry has long recommended that compatriots not visit the country, said Elena Chernenko, a correspondent for the Kommersant newspaper.

“For the first time, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian citizens are not recommended to visit Syria, a conflict zone, back in August of this year. It was said that it is strongly discouraged from going to Syria unnecessarily. Last week, the Free Syrian Army is an opposition the army has actually announced a hunt for citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Iran.

In a video posted on the Internet, a representative of this organization says that citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Iran are actually targets for militants, and that they are proposed to be captured and not released from the country,” she said.

The day before, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Russia agreed on a plan for a large-scale evacuation of Russians from Syria. If necessary, the special services plan to take compatriots out of the country in just a few days.

Alexey Kiselev

“There will be no forceful solution to this problem from Russia”