US, Russia fail to agree on meeting with Russian held at Guantanamo

Russia and the United States are deadlocked over whether a Russian delegation can meet with a Russian citizen at Guantanamo, Russian media reports indicate. A Russian newspaper said talks between the two nations held during the past two months have not produced an agreement that would allow the delegation to meet with Ravil Mingazov, who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for more than a decade, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. Mingazov, 45, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of terrorist activities and of having links to al-Qaida. He has been held at the U.S. military base in Cuba without formal charges. The delegation wants to make sure Mingazov is well, but Konstantin Dolgov, the foreign ministry's special representative for human rights, accused the U.S. of insufficient effort to make the meeting possible. The U.S. has offered the delegation a tour of the prison camp without meeting Mingazov. The State Department said the prisoner himself opposes the meeting. Mingazov's attorneys said he was willing to meet with Russian officials, but only with his lawyers present. Mingazov, a former ballet and folk dancer, is the last of eight Russians to be held at Guantanamo. The others were transferred to Russia in 2004.