MOSCOW Russian and Chechen security forces on Monday pressed on with their efforts to find President Boris Yeltsin's kidnapped personal envoy to the breakaway Caucasus region. Valentin Vlasov was seized by gunmen last Friday while travelling in Chechnya. It is not clear who the gunmen were or what their motives were but kidnappings for ransom money have become a key problem in the tiny, economically shattered region.

The search (for Vlasov) is continuing but I cannot make any further comment at present, Chechen deputy prime minister Kazbek Makhashev told Reuters. He added that the search was being coordinated from the Chechen capital Grozny, not from the neighbouring region of Ingushetia as previously agreed with the Russian side. Checkpoints have been set up or reinforced at junctions across Chechnya, where separatists fought a two-year war of independence against Russian federal troops.

(Reuter)