MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) – Only private Russian airlines may provide air transportation services to foreign countries sending forces to Mali during the current crisis, and the decision on whether to do so is up to them, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
“[French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius] was interested in whether it would be possible to provide transport services, and I said precisely this: ‘I have heard that our private companies have contracts with different countries, including the French Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministries of a number of African states…this is their decision, commercial projects.’ And we did not discuss anything else related to transport services,” he said.