Fate of Vagap Tutakov kidnapped in Chechnya still unknown

The exact whereabouts and fate of Vagap Tutakov, a former deputy of the Parliament of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), who was kidnapped by unknown persons on September 10 in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya (located in the southwest of the Republic), are still not established.

An employee of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" said: "Starting from about 2004, Mr Tutakov, who had been for a number of years after the start of the second military campaign in Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov's special representative in Strasbourg, quitted his businesses and escaped any political activities. ...They say that he has either launched or wanted to launch some new venture and even started building some small factory."

Meanwhile, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported, according to the data obtained from confidential sources, the former deputy of the Chechen Parliament was supposedly kidnapped by the militaries of the so-called "Oil Regiment" (a militia unit of the Department of the Extradepartmental Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic in charge of guarding Republic's oil pipelines and oil derricks) under command of Sharip Delimkhanov, younger brother of Vice-President of the Chechen Government of Chechnya Adam Delimkhanov. The sources assert that Tutakov might be kept on the base of this militia unit in the Gudermes District of Chechnya.