MOSCOW, March 26 (Reuters) - Qatar Airways announced planson Monday to buy a 25 percent stake in Russia's Vnukovo Airport,the third-largest in the Moscow area by passenger numbers.
The deal was announced on the same day that Qatar's Emir,Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, met President Vladimir Putin inthe Kremlin.
A Qatar Airways spokeswoman told Reuters the airline hadsigned a memorandum of understanding to buy the minority stakeand that it now had eight weeks to finalise the transaction.
Russia's Interfax news agency earlier quoted Qatar AirwaysChief Executive Akbar al-Baker as announcing the deal.
No financial details were released.
The airport is co-owned by the Russian state, which has ablocking stake, and Russian businessman Vitaly Vantsev and hispartners.
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar InvestmentAuthority, owns a 20 percent stake in London's Heathrow airport.
Qatari relations with a number of Gulf countries arestrained after Saudi Arabia and some of its allies last yearaccused Doha of supporting Islamists, a charge it denies. Withits military intervention in Syria, Russia has emerged as apowerful player in the Middle East.
"We are counting on our Russian friends ... knowing thatRussia plays a major role with regards to the problems existingin the Arab world... including the role where you help to solvesome of our countries' problems," al-Thani told Putin at theirmeeting.
Russia is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in hiswar against rebel fighters, some of whom are backed by Turkey,an ally of Qatar.
Qatar, together with global commodities trader Glencore, has invested in Russian state oil company Rosneft. They both later agreed to sell part on that stake toChina's CEFC in a deal which has since stalled.
In October last year, Putin hosted Saudi Arabia's KingSalman in Moscow, who became the first sitting Saudi monarch tovisit Russia.(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Vladimir SoldatkinAdditional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and VictoriaBryan in BerlinWriting by Christian Lowe and Katya GolubkovaEditing by Adrian Croft)
