According to the Investigatory Department (ID) for Ingushetia of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation, in the first half-year of 2009, three facts of kidnapping were registered in the territory of the republic. Investigation of them continues.

"In early April of 2009, in the city of Malgobek, a group of armed persons in camouflage kidnapped Gapur Tankiev, 23, a local resident. Various versions of this kidnapping are studied, including kidnapping with the aim to get ransom," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the ID for Ingushetia of the ICPO.

Another kidnapping took place in Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, where in late April this year unidentified armed persons in camouflage kidnapped Ismail Khamkhoev, 38, right from his own house.

"Along with other versions, we check possible Khamkhoev's kidnapping on vengeance motives," said a source ...

Dozens of persons were eyewitnesses of the kidnapping of a young woman committed on June 8 by workers of unidentified power agencies near the bus station of the "Berkat" shopping in Grozny. They were shocked by the manner the "special operation" was conducted. They treat the actions of power agents as inadequate.

"I still can't recover from the shock that I then experienced. With my friend I was about to take a fixed-route taxi No. 12, when the whole thing began. All of a sudden, militaries and persons in civilian clothes started running from all directions; they grasped a young woman; and everyone of them tried to hit or kick her, crying wildly that she should be assassinated," Khava, a woman from Grozny, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The crowd of men in uniform and without, with arms in hand, set at ...

Activists of public organizations and human rights activists, who work in Northern Caucasus, are exposed to serious risk. This is the opinion of Aslambek Apaev, a Chechen human rights activist, expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group for Northern Caucasus and chairman of the Committee in Defence of Rights of Forced Migrants.

As examples, the Chechen human rights defender gave the incidents that took place in May with his deputy for Ingushetia Yakha Oligova and with Arkadiy Goryaev, head of the Foundation to Promote Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations in Kalmykia. Both of them were attacked by unknown persons and received thus serious wounds and traumas.

"Arkadiy Goryaev is my close friend and comrade. This April he was one of the founders of the Union of Repressed Nations of Russia (URNR)," said Mr Apaev.

"The creation of the URNR has caused ...