Passports checked in Grozny

Residents of a number of small settlements located in the Staropromyslovskiy District of Chechen capital report about the check of their passports held there. There were no detainees, however, local residents got worried.

"Three days ago, law enforcers conducted checks in sections Nos. 15, 10 and 9, located in the Staropromyslovskiy District. Local residents report that power agents came to these small settlements and made house-after-house inspection, checking documents of all residents. The action has seriously disturbed the people," the head of one of local NGOs told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his version, such total checks were practised by power agents during the first years of the counterterrorist operation, and, as a rule, were accompanied by mass detentions. Quite often, some of the detainees were later found murdered or disappeared.

"This is our normal practice, which has nothing to do with the total "zachistkas" (clean-ups) of early 2000s. There're no grounds to worry for human rights activists or the population," said, in his turn, an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya.