Return to Russia of seven pilots who escaped from captivity of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan

United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi. Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin, head of the government delegation to ensure the speedy return to their homeland of the seven Russian pilots who escaped from captivity by the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Director General of the Russian Information Agency ITAR-TASS Vitaly Nikitich Ignatenko and Sheikh Al Nahyan Khalifa bin Zayed (from left to right) during a meeting to discuss options for the return of the pilots to Russia. After a year of captivity by the Taliban movement in Kandahar, the seven Russian pilots escaped to the United Arab Emirates on an IL-76TD aircraft of the Kazan company Aerostan. Oleg Buldakov/TASS