MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) - Moscow has no information as to whether the Russians earlier taken hostage by Hamas are still alive, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday.
"We don't have such information, we have no contact with the hostages," Bogdanov told reporters in Moscow, replying to the question.
That was the essence of maintaining contacts with Hamas, "because they must know about the hostages," he said.
"Furthermore, we have said that Hamas need to provide this information to the [International Committee of the Red Cross] ICRC, who need to go there, take the hostages and bring them to Israel," he said.
The Russian side cannot "be participating in this directly, physically" and therefore, an agreement with the ICRC was made, Bogdanov said.