Yeltsin’s envoy to Chechnya kidnapped

The scene was just 30 kms from the site of a deadly ambush two weeks ago in which gunmen killed five Russian soldiers including an Army General in one of the bloodiest attacks on Federal troops since the war in Chechnya.

Chechen Foreign Minister Movladi Udugov claimed the abduction was the work of “forces controlled by Russian Special Services, the same forces behind previous kidnappings.”

Their motive, he claimed, was to gain “some sort of influence in Moscow itself and on the North Caucasus in general,” Moscow Echo Radio said.

“This is a purely political act,”Udugov told the radio. “Only a complete idiot would think he could get a ransom for a government official.”

Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin meanwhile personally briefed Yeltsin, who was spending the May 1 holiday at his countryside retreat. Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko was also briefed.

The kidnapping occurred at around 10 am (0600 GMT) on Friday, as Vlasov’s vehicle was passing the Ingush village on the main highway which snakes through the Caucasus from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the southern Russian town of Rostov-on-the-Don.

Chechnya and Russia’s other North Caucasus republics have become a fertile ground for hostage-takers since the 21-month Chechen war of secession ended in August 1996.

The pitiful state of a fledgling police force coupled with chronic unemployment and a flood of weapons have combined to make kidnapping a growth industry.

Some 65 hostages including at least six foreigners are currently being held in the volatile region, according to statistics put out by aspecial Chechen anti-abduction unit.

But this was the first abduction of a senior Russian official. Yeltsin’s special envoys to Russia’s 89 regions work closely with Mayors and Governors to ensure the President’s views are represented in regional policies.

Yeltsin ordered Ivan Rybkin, Chechen trouble-shooter in the previous Russian government but now without a Cabinet post, to fly to the Chechen capital Grozny to look into the abduction.

After a meeting late Friday with Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Kazabek Makhashev and Ingush President Ruslan Aushev at Ingushetia’s Sleptsovsky airport, Rybkin flew back to Moscow.

The Russian head of state also ordered the interior ministry to set up a special group to investigate the incident, to be headed up by First Deputy Interior Minister Colonel-General Vladimir Vasilyev.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said he would personally head efforts to find the Russian official and his kidnappers, Interfax reported.