Russian pilots abducted in Sudan are alive and are being held by a group that specializes in taking foreigners hostage for ransom, Mikhail Margelov, the Russian president's special envoy for Sudan and chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Com

(Kazan, August 31, Tatar-inform). Russian pilots abducted in Sudan are alive and are being held by a group that specializes in taking foreigners hostage for ransom, Mikhail Margelov, the Russian president's special envoy for Sudan and chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax.

"We have received information confirming that all of the pilots, who are citizens of the Russian Federation, are alive. The Sudanese authorities have also identified the group that kidnapped them. It is a semi-political semi-gang group that specializes in taking foreign hostages for ransom," Margelov said.