MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has not decided yet to carry out an emergency evacuation of its nationals from Iraq.
"There is a plan for Russian humanitarian actions in the event an armed operation begins in Iraq, but this does not mean that there will be an emergency evacuation of Russian nationals from Iraq," a Moscow source told Interfax on Tuesday.
He said that in keeping with the Foreign Ministry's advisory all Russian nationals remaining in Iraq will leave the country along ground routes via neighboring nations.
"If hostilities begin in Iraq Russia, under an understanding with the Iranian authorities, may deploy humanitarian missions to the territory of Iran," the source said.
In addition to Russian embassy workers there may be several hundred Russian specialists working at Iraqi industrial facilities, some sources say.
Between March 6 and 9 an IL-62 Classic airliner from the Russian Emergencies Ministry made four flights from Baghdad to Moscow evacuating 567 nationals of Russia and several other CIS countries. "At the present stage the operation is complete as everyone who wished to leave Iraq has been airlifted," a spokesman for the ministry announced.