Aleksandr Nikitin: "About 2 thousand people are considered to be missing in Chechnya, according to official data"

"About 2 thousand people are considered to be missing in Chechnya, according to official data," deputy prosecutor of the republic Aleksandr Nikitin reported yesterday. The Chechen prosecutor's office holds inquiries into about 1.5 thousand cases on people's disappearances.

Mr. Nikitin denied information that Russian security agencies were involved in the abductions. The data of the non-profit foundation "Vozvrascheniye" (The Return), which were also published yesterday, at a press conference in Moscow, say that at least 4 thousand people have disappeared without a trace in the republic for the years of the second Chechen campaign.