Borozdinovskaia residents still missing

"The investigation of the Borozdinovskaia case has not been finished yet," Maksim Toporikov, Military Prosecutor of the United Group of Troops (Forces) in the North Caucasus, told Caucasian Knot's correspondent earlier today. "Fifty various examinations are being conducted in Moscow, and the results will be ready in the near future, which is when the completion of the investigation can be discussed."

"One serviceman of the Vostok ("East") battalion has been detained as part of the investigation into this case," according to Mr Toporikov. The military prosecutor emphasised that "conducting the examinations outside the republic rules out any possibility and all conjectures of fabrication of the results."

A Caucasian Knot source in Chechnya's Prosecutor's Office said, "At the request of the Military Prosecutor's Office of the United Group of Troops, we have searched for the missing residents of Borozdinovskaia in temporary detention isolators in Chechnya and its neighbouring republics, but this search has not been productive. They have not been found anywhere." The source declined to comment on his words, emphasising only that he "would not like to disturb the relatives' pain. But unless a missing person is found within a few days after disappearing, it will be very problematic to find him or her later in Chechnya."

Human rights defenders explain this long search for the missing people with that "they are simply not searched for." "When federal law enforcement or security agencies can be suspected of being involved in an abduction of people, these people are simply not searched for. There are some examples – eight relatives of Aslan Maskhadov were abducted last winter, and one of them was absolutely legally kept in custody in the Nozhai-Yurt district. But we did not know that, so human rights defenders were making inquiries about eight abducted people. The prosecutor's office told us that federal agencies were not involved in that. One of the missing people was then finally learnt to be legally kept exactly by 'federals.' But the prosecutor's office kept on saying that he was not kept in custody for another three days," says Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the Management Board of the Memorial Society. "They simply did not send any inquiries there. So when the involvement of federal law enforcement or security agencies is obvious, nothing is done simply."

Alexander Cherkasov emphasised, "The Borozdinovskaia case became public only because of internal struggle in Chechnya between the federal government (Vostok is part of the 42nd division, i.e. they are 'federals') and the local government that wants to control everything."

"Why are these 11 better than 2,500 other abducted people (this is at least how many criminal cases of abduction have been opened in Chechnya) – that was the logics of military prosecutors. They do not investigate all these cases, so why search for 11 missing residents of Borozdinovskaia?"

• Vostok admitted to have conducted clean-up