Interview date: July 21, 2000

A Moscow journalist, having been accredited in the city of Mozdok at the press center of the Russian group of forces, traveled to Ingushetia. There, he hired two security guards from among the current officers of the Russian police, who, like himself, were ethnic Chechens. On May 16, 2000, the three of them drove into Chechnya through Russian posts from the direction of Ingushetia.

After being captured at a Russian post on May 17, 2000 and having experienced insults and humiliation, the interviewed journalist and his guards were subjected to torture during their detention.

Comment from the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center: the time of the incident described above occured during a relative hiatus in the fighting. Following the combat for the village of Goy-Chu (Komsomolskoe) in March 2000, the Russian army established de facto control over populated region of the Republic. Chechen formations, driven into the mountains and forests, were still preparing for guerrilla warfare and underground activities in cities and villages.